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Decoration of the 
School and Home 



By THEODORE M. DILLAWAY 

h 
DIRECTOR OF MANUAL ARTS 
BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY 

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS 
1914 



4^ 



COPYRIGHT 1914 

By MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY 

SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS 



JUN 17 m^ 

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©CI.A374nGS 



CONTENTS 

PART ONE 

Chapter Page 

I Decoration of the School 11 

n School Grounds 16 

III Decoration of the Schoolroom 23, 

IV Principles of Arrangement 39 
V Treatment of Wall Spaces and Windows 51 

VI Selection of Subjects for Pupils 64 
VII The Decoration of the School Entrance and Hallways 68 
VIII Decoration of the Assembly Hall 75 
IX The Influence of Good Decoration 80 
X Processes of Reproduction 84 
■ XI Picture Framing 90 
Xn A Suggestive List of Pictures and Casts for Ele- 
mentary and High Schools 94 

PART TWO 

XIII The Teaching of Home Decoration in the Public 

Schools 130 

XIV Home Furnishing 160 
XV Color and its Application to Interior Decoration 167 

XVI Furniture 177 

XVn Table Lamps 187 

XVin Draperies and Curtains 189 

XIX Sofa PiUows and Vases 197 

XX Selection and Arrangement of the Room Furnishings 203 



PREFACE 

"The habit of regarding Art as a thing apart from 
life is fatal to the development of taste. Its true function 
should be to contribute to the joy of right living." In- 
deed, a nation's art is a reflection of the daily life of its 
people and indicates very clearly the quality of ideals 
that they possess. 

A study of Greek art reveals the fact that the Greeks 
attained their highest development of culture during 
the Golden Age of Pericles. The decline of their ideals, 
following the conquests in Asia, is clearly written in the 
art of that period. 

It is quite as true in the case of the individual as of 
the nation, that the degree of refinement which he 
possesses will be at once apparent in the environment 
that he chooses to create for himself. 

If orderly habits and a refined sense of form and 
color are cultivated, these qualities will be reflected in 
daily acts and personal appearance as well as in that 
part of his environment which he controls. 

Educators believe there is education of the highest 
order in a beautiful school environment since it trans- 
mits culture and refinement as no amount of formal 
instruction can do. 

There is a feeling growing among teachers that a 
room made attractive with harmonious colors, fine pic- 
tures, statuary, and plants, arranged in decorative man- 



8 Preface 

ner, exerts a great influence upon the happiness of the 
children. This improved state of mind tends to produce 
greater interest and higher accomplishment in daily 
tasks and it undoubtedly has a beneficial influence upon 
the child's deportment and his attitude toward the school. 

Therefore, it is the purpose of the first part of this 
volume to reveal the importance of this phase of educa- 
tion to the general public, and to suggest the solution 
of some of the most important problems in School Deco- 
ration to those teachers who desire such information. 
The illustrations of schoolroom decorations were ob- 
tained through the courtesy of principals and teachers 
and each one was selected to illustrate the principle 
under consideration. Therefore, some plates are not 
without minor faults — such as suspending a picture from 
one hook instead of two, or allowing the picture to rest 
on the blackboard molding. 

The writer feels that the experiments in relating the 
art work in the Public Schools to Home Furnishing and 
Dress will prove one of the most valuable phases of the 
child's art training and, without doubt, more time and 
attention will be devoted to these subjects in the future. 

The second part of the volume deals with various 
successful experiments in teaching Home Decoration 
and such considerations of design and color in home 
furnishing as will assist the teacher in developing the 
child's judgment in the selection of furniture, wall papers, 
rugs, draperies, bric-a-brac, etc. 

The writer wishes to acknowledge the courtesy of 
the following people who have generously contributed 
information and illustrations : — 



Preface 9 

The Emery School Art Co., Boston, Mass., dealers in 
pictures for school decoration, and sole agents for the 
Riviere color prints, for color plates by Henri Riviere ; 
the M. H. Birge «& Sons, Buffalo, N. Y., manufacturers 
of paper hangings, for plates of room interiors; the 
Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia, for cuts of 
home furnishings; the Atkinson, Mentzer Company, 
Chicago, 111., for plate of Rhine color prints; the Sherwin- 
Williams Paint Company, Cleveland, Ohio, for color 
plates of room interiors; Caproni Brothers, Boston, 
Mass., manufacturers of plaster casts, for views of 
assembly halls; Mr. Donald McDonald, Boston, Mass., 
manufacturer of stained glass windows and lighting 
fixtures, for reproductions of designs for lighting fixtures ; 
Messrs. Curtis and Cameron, Boston, Mass., manufac- 
turers of carbon reproductions of mural decorations 
and paintings, for plates of Blashfield's and Sim- 
mons' decorations. Mr. Henry Turner Bailey, Editor 
of School Arts Magazine, for permission to quote from 
The School Arts Magazine; Mr. Frederick Whitney, 
Director of Art Department, Salem Normal School, for 
photographs of decorations in the Salem Normal School ; 
Mr. Edward Thornhill, Supervisor of Drawing, Worces- 
ter, Mass., for suggestive lists of shrubs and flowers; 
Miss Mary McSkimmon, principal of the Pierce School, 
Brookline, Mass., for interior views of the Pierce School; 
Master Henry B. Miner, and teachers of the Edward 
Everett School, Boston, Mass. ; Master Myron T. Pritch- 
ard and teachers of the Everett School, Boston, Mass. ; 
Master Edwin F. Kimball, Gilbert Stuart School, Boston, 
Mass.; Master Arthur A. Lincoln, Washington AUston 



10 Preface 

School, Boston, Mass. ; Master Charles F. King, Dear- 
bom School, Boston, Mass., for views of school decora- 
tion; Miss Alice A. Swett, Art Instructor, Washington 
Allston School, Boston, Mass., for description of teaching 
art in relation to home making ; Mr. Edward Kingsbury, 
Art Instructor, English High School, Boston, Mass., for 
reproduction of his mural painting in the Charlestown, 
Mass., High School; Mr. Ludwig Frank, Department 
Instructor of Manual Arts, Boston, Mass., Public Schools, 
for plates suggesting color schemes for schoolrooms and 
assembly halls. 



PART ONE 

CHAPTER I 

Decoration of the School 

ARCHITECTURE 

The ancient Greeks surrounded their mothers with 
beauty so that children might be born beautiful in body 
and with a love for beauty. This system of educa- 
tion produced a race of cultured men and women, and 
the world is yet their debtor for the noble results that 
they achieved in art and literature. 

We cannot afford to ignore the effect of environment 
in the education of children for it has been truthfully 
stated that daily association with poor pictures, dis- 
orderly rooms, and ugly school buildings — surrounded 
by unattractive, unkempt grounds — may indeed be as 
injurious as association with trashy literature. 

Is it little wonder that children who have attended 
such schools lack ideals of beauty and are disorderly? 
What lessons in surroundings does the boy take home 
from the sordid building in which he is being educated? 

Can you reasonably expect the girls from such a 
school to set a higher standard about the homes they 
will soon be making? 

Comenius long since urged "that the school building 
be a beautiful spot, that it offer to the eye a pleasant 
view from the outside and a pleasant view within." 



12 Decoration of the School and Home 

There is urgent need for improving the style of our 
school architecture, for we are not keeping pace with the 
improvement in this respect in our libraries, churches, 
and other public buildings. The factory-like style of 
architecture, fig. I, plate I, is unfortunately coming into 
vogue in many of our large cities, and is excused and 
tolerated in the name of economy. It is doubtful, how- 
ever, if the making of an ugly object has ever proved 
economical in the end. The great opportunity for making 
the school "a pleasant view from the outside," as 
Comenius urged, has been sacrificed for the sake of 
saving a few dollars. 

"Members of school committees and others interested 
in school construction should recognize that in such work 
great saving in cost can seldom be made except by sacri- 
fice of desirable features, and that the permanent value 
of a building depends upon the knowledge, skill, and 
forethought used by the architect in the disposition of its 
parts, in the durability and fire-protected character of its 
construction, in the quality of its appointments and fit- 
tings ; and, finally, that beauty of the design, though no 
small consideration, may fittingly be retained within the 
limitation of brick construction. 

" The percentage of excess of cost between a school 
designed with regard for architectural efifect and one of a 
purely utilitarian construction is not great. Under ordi- 
nary conditions, satisfactory architectural results may be 
obtained at an increase of cost of not more than five per 
cent, above that of most 'practical' construction. A 
careful reckoning of the cost of the Brighton High School, 
the most elaborate school designed by the writer, shows 




Fig. I. The element of beauty has been sacrificed in this school building. 




Fig. II. A notable example of beautiful school architecture. 
PLATE I. 



Decoration of the School and Home 15 

that eight per cent, of its cost, above that of a purely 
utilitarian structure, covered the expense of its architec- 
tural features. It will be generally admitted that a large 
building demands a greater relative cost for architectural 
effect than does a smaller one. Few people now main- 
tain that a pleasing architectural effect is an unim- 
portant consideration, and that a beautiful school is not 
a factor in the education of the young." — From "School 
Architecture," Edmund Marsh Wheelwright. 

Distinction and beauty in school architecture will 
result when buildings embody fine proportions; when 
cornices, windows, doors, and other details of construc- 
tion are in proper scale relation to the whole; and when 
ornament is used in restraint and intimately related to 
structure. 

Note the fine proportions of the building in fig. II, 
plate I ; the interesting treatment of the space relations 
in the facade; the beautifully designed cornice and 
frieze which are just the right proportion for the rest of 
the building; and the pilasters and wrought-iron lan- 
terns at the entrance which, with the frieze decorations, 
give the right amount of ornamentation to the whole. 

It is fitting that such a beautiful building has been 
named after Gilbert Stuart, the great American por- 
trait artist. 



CHAPTER n 
School Grounds 

Landscape gardening will add much to the attract- 
iveness of the school building. 

The ugliness of the type of building in fig. I, plate I, 
may be made less conspicuous by means of planting 
ivy, which will soon soften the severity of its lines. The 
approach to the building may be made inviting and 
beautiful by means of a few trees, grassplots, and flower 
beds, judiciously placed. Such problems as these afford 
excellent opportimities for teaching the children their 
first lessons in Civic Beauty. In some schools the beau- 
tifying of the school grounds has been accomplished by a 
committee composed of school children, who have made 
beds for plants arid shrubbery, set out trees, planted 
vines to make bare walls and fences more attractive, and 
kept the yard in an orderly condition. This work has 
aroused the interest of fellow pupils which has resulted 
in their co-operation with the committee in keeping the 
appearance of the grounds neat and orderly. 

TREES AND SHRUBBERY 

Trees not only beautify the school grounds but may 
serve to screen an objectionable view from the windows. 
The maple, birch, poplar, and elm are varieties which 
are well adapted for this purpose. 




Fig. I. 




Fig. II. 

The well arranged beds of shrubbery add much to the attractive appearance of the 
Salem (Mass.) Normal School Grounds. 

PLATE II. 



18 Decoration of the School and Home 

Shrubs are most effective when planted in hedge- 
rows or in beds. 

The following shrubs have been successfully used in 
decorating school grounds in Worcester, Mass. : — 

Forsythia Suspensa (Golden Bells). Blossoms in 
April before the leaves appear, and is a graceful, droop- 
ing growth. 

Forsythia Fortunei. Upright and strong growth. 
Both of the above should be planted where they will 
have sunshine. 

Deutzia Gracilis. White. Early in June. 

Deutzia Crenata (Pride of Rochester). 

Exochorda Grandifiora. 

Spirea (Van Houtte). White. Last of May. Droop- 
ing habit. Four to six feet. 

Spirea (Anthony Waterer). Crimson. All summer. 
Two feet. 

Spirea Arguta. White. May. 

Barberry. June. Green leaves, with metallic luster. 
Yellow blossoms and red berries. 

Lilac (Persian.) Two varieties, white and purple. 
Not as coarse growing as the common French variety. 

Lilac, Charles X. Reddish purple. 

Viburnum Plicatum. (Japanese Snowball.) Hand- 
some plicated leaves. Whiter flowers than the common. 

Hydrangea Paniculata Grandifiora. August. White 
flowers remain all winter. 

Syringa, Philadelphus (Mock Orange). 

Weigelia Candida. White. June. 

Weigelia Rosea. June. 

Weigelia Eva Rathke. Summer. 



Decoration of the School and Home 19 

Sumac. Native. 

Golden Elder. White. 

Golden Spirea. White. 

Variegated Weigelia. Foliage green, white, and pink. 

Variegated Dogwood. Silver-margined. Slow grow- 
ing but very desirable. 

Purple-leaved Barberry. Red fruit. 

All of the above should be planted in the sun to 
develop the best color. 

VINES 

The schoolhouse, fences, walls, and outbuildings 
may be made more attractive by having vines grow 
upon them. For permanent screens, use such hardy 
vines as the Woodbine, Trumpet Vine, Clematis, Honey- 
suckles, Virginia Creeper, Wild Grapes, Bittersweet, 
etc. 

For immediate results, plant the rapid " Cucumber 
Vine," and the annual Morning-Glories. 

Japanese Ivy is excellent for the building, for it 
clings to brick and stone walls without support. 

While satisfactory decoration may be obtained with 
trees, shrubbery, and grassplots, flowers, when planted 
in narrow beds bordering the building or fences, contrib- 
ute a most cheerful and homelike atmosphere to the 
school grounds. However, the custom of breaking 
beautiful lawn spaces with circular beds should be 
avoided. 

The selection and arrangement of flowers in beds 
should be presented to the pupils as a problem in color 



20 Decoration of the School and Home 

and design. Here is an excellent opportunity of putting 
into practice the theory of color harmony taught in the 
class room. 

The pupils in the intermediate grades might experi- 
ment grouping flowers of one or two analogous colors 
with white, as a bed of red and white tulips or red and 
purple-red asters. 

The pupils of the higher elementary grades may be 
first taught to group flowers having strong contrasts of 
intensity; as red and yellow, either by separatmg them 
with white flowers or with flowers having the coloring 
of intermediate hues. In this case the shock of violent 
contrast is avoided by the gradual transition from red to 
yellow through the hues of orange-red and orange-yellow. 
By this method flowers of all colors ranging from red to 
purple may be made as harmonious as the colors of the 
spectrum or a sunset. 

The grouping of flowers to produce a complementary 
effect as yellow and purple asters, or orange and yellow 
bloom with blue and purple, may also be considered. 

In this way each flower bed might be made a definite 
color problem to be worked out in crayons or water 
colors in the class room, and then the best results of 
these exercises may be worked out in the flower beds. 

Following is the list of flowering plants and vines 
for school grounds: — 

Dahlias, Golden Glow, Nasturtiums, Morning-Glories, 
Paeonia, Day Lilies, Phlox, Columbine, Asters, Gail- 
lardia, Coreopsis, Delphiniums, Heleniums, Bleeding 
Heart, Oriental Poppy, and Japanese Spirea. 



CHAPTER III 

Decoration of the Schoolroom 

The plea for better schoolroom decoration in America 
was probably first made by Charles C. Perkins and John 
Philbrick in 1870. It did not attract public attention, 
however, until 1892, when Ross Turner urged that "daily 
association with good pictures and statuary affords the 
best means of developing culture," and added force to 
these words through a practical demonstration of decora- 
tion in the Phillips School, Salem, Mass. 

Since that time, much has been accomplished by 
educators in surrounding the children with reproduc- 
tions of the masterpieces of architecture, painting, and 
sculpture. More attention has been given, however, to 
the selection of pictures and casts, from the stand- 
point of the child's appreciation, than to the proper 
arrangement of these subjects upon the walls to pro- 
duce the most effective decoration. Much more satis- 
factory results will be achieved if the decoration of a 
building is considered as a complete whole and a plan 
is drawn up by the principal, teachers, and art director 
which will include the dimensions of wall spaces and 
a list of pictures and casts which harmoniously decorate 
these spaces. 

Such a plan would be a safe guide for teachers to fol- 
low and would eliminate the possibility of unsuitable gifts 
which are sometimes donated by well-intentioned people. 



24 Decoration of the School and Home 

A model school in decoration, centrally located, and 
demonstrating correct decoration of school and grounds 
would prove to be an inspiration to the teachers, pupils, 
and parents. 

The McElwain School in Bridgewater, Mass., illus- 
trates how such a plan was successfully carried out by 
Superintendent John De Meyer. 

PLAN FOR INTERIOR DECORATIONS OF 

THE McELWAIN SCHOOL AT 

BRIDGEWATER, MASS. 

Corridor directly in front of entrance, "The Evolu- 
tion of the Book" by Alexander. Size of each of the 
six pictures 16"x32", framed in groups of three with 
a three-inch, dark oak frame, one and one-half inch 
molding separating different pictures. The first three 
placed on the left-hand corridor wall and the second 
three on the right. Each picture occupying a space of 
twenty-five feet long and approximately nine feet high. 
Cost $125.00 including the frame. 

Grade I 

In front of room, "Bambino" by Delia Robbia. 
Size 32" X 40". Cost $6.00. Space nine feet. The 
balance of space occupied by two doors and a heating 
shaft. The rear of the room, "Cats and Kittens 
at Play" by Adam. Size 18" x 22". Cost $3.00. 
"Children of the Shell" by Murillo. Size 18"x22". 
Cost $3.00. Space occupied by the two, twenty-two 
and one-half feet. On the side of the room, ** Hiawatha." 




This ugly shaft has been made less obnoxious by a Japanese towel. 

PLATE IV. 



^ Decoration of the School and Home 27 

Size 15"x22". Cost $2.00. Space three feet. "A 
Distinguished Member of the Humane Society" by 
Landseer. Size 17"x21". Cost $1.50. Space nine 
feet, balance filled by transom. 

Grades II and III 

In front of room, "The vSwans," Rhine color print. 
Size 30" X 40". Cost $2.00. "The Little Shrimp Fisher- 
man" by Blommers. Size 25" x 32". Cost $6.00. 
These pictures occupy a space of twenty-four feet. 
"Summer Evenings," a color print by Henri Riviere. 
Size 21i2"x32i2". Cost $3.00. This picture with a 
clock and a six-pane transom occupies a space of twenty- 
nine feet. 

Grades III and IV 
In one room 

In the front of the room, "The Triumphant Entry 
of Alexander into Babylon." Slabs I and A. Size 
24"x41". Cost $7.50 each. Space nineteen feet. On 
the side of the room, Rhine color print, "Isle of 
Swans." Size 21i2"x3132". Cost $3.00. With 
clock and a six-pane transom occupy space of twenty- 
nine feet. 

In the rear of the room, "The Brook" with the 
"Pilgrims going to Church" by Boughton. Size 28" 
x40". Cost $6.00. 

Grade V 

Front space, twenty-four feet long, series of four 
pictures framed together with narrow strips of mold- 



28 Decoration of the School and Home 

ing between pictures entitled, "Life at Mavoit," color 
prints by Henri Riviere. The pictures are entitled: — 

1. "The Old Men." (See frontispiece.) 

2. "The Boys Fishing." (See plate XXXII.) 

3. "Working in the Fields." 

4. "The Port." 

Size of each 15"x21". Cost $1.50 each. 

On the side of the room is "The Avenue of Trees" 
byHobbema. Size 15 I4" x 21". Cost $1.50. Together 
with a clock and a six-pane transom occupies a space of 
twenty-four feet. 

The rear of the room, "Traffic on the Thames." 
Size 21 1 2" X 32 1 2". Color print by Henri Riviere. 
Cost $3.00. These two pictures occupy a space of nine- 
teen feet. 

Grade VI 

Cast, "Boys Playing a Trumpet" by Delia Robbia. 
Size 42"x38". Cost $13.50. "Song of the Lark" by 
Jules Breton. Size 25"x32". Cost $6.75. These 
occupy a space of nineteen feet. 

Side of room, "Plantmg the Potatoes" by Millet. 
Size 21io"x32i^". Cost $3.00. Occupies a space of 
twenty-four feet. 

Grade VH 

In front of room, "Washington Laying His Com- 
mission at the Feet of Columbia" by Blashfield. Size 
24"x72". Price $25.00. This occupies a space of 
twenty-four feet. Side of room, "Along the River" by 
Le Rolle. Size 22"x 28". Cost $6.00. This picture with 
clock and transom occupies a space of nineteen feet. 





Fig. a. 



Fig. b. 





Fig. c. Fig. d. 

Color schemes for elementary school rooms. 
PLATE V. 



Decoration of the School and Home 31 

Back of the room, space of nineteen feet, is filled by 
"The Sower," MiUet. Size 24"x32". Cost $6.75. 



Grade VHI 

In the front of room, space of nineteen feet, there 
is a slab from "The Western Frieze of the Parthenon." 
Size 32"x48", and "Night at Sea," color print by 
Riviere. Size 21 32" x 32i<". Cost $3.00. 

Rear of the room, "The Shepherdess" by Millet. 
Size 25"x32". Cost $6.75. "Institute of France 
Cite," color print by Henri Riviere. Size 21 K"x 32 V^". 
These pictures together with clock and transom occupy 
space of twenty-three feet. 

Side of room, "Abraham Lincoln" by Augustus 
Saint-Gaudens. Size 22" x 28". Cost $5.60. This 
picture with transom and clock occupies space of twenty- 
four feet. 

Grade IX 

Front of room, "The Lake" by Corot. Size 25" x 32". 
Cost $6.75. Space nine and three-quarters feet. On 
the rear of the room, "The Angelus" by Millet. Size 
25"x32". Cost $6.75, and "The Moonrise," color 
print by Henri Riviere. Size 21H"x32H". Cost 
$3.00. Occupying space of twenty-two and one-half feet. 

On the side of the room, " Sunset," color print by 
Henri Riviere. Size 21^-." x 32^ V'- This picture, 
with clock and four-pane transom, occupies space of 
twenty-three feet. 



32 Decoration of the School and Home 

Assembly Hall 

"The Roman Forum." Size 23" x 32". Cost $7.50. 
"The Castle and Bridge of St. Angelo." Size 28" x 32". 
Price $7.50. These pictures occupy a space of thirty feet. 

The other side, a cast, "The Triixmphant Entry of 
Alexander into Babylon," slab 17" x 18". Cost $19.00. 
Occupies space of thirty feet. 

In the principal's office, "Autumn Gold," color print 
by George Inness. Size 14" x 21". Cost $1.50. Space 
five feet. 

Teachers' room, "Saint Barbara" by Vecchio. Size 
21"xl9". Cost $1.50. 

The above pictures with the exception of the series 
entitled "The Evolution of the Book," were all bought 
unframed and framed by a framing house with a uni- 
form oak molding stained to match the color of the 
woodwork throughout the building. The total cost for 
framing amounted to about $98.00. . 

THE COLOR OF THE WALLS AND WOODWORK 

It is very essential that the schoolroom walls should 
be treated in such color schemes as will enhance the 
decorative value of pictures and casts. At the same 
time, practical as well as aesthetic considerations should 
regulate the choice of these colors. The amount of 
light in a room or hall should receive first consideration. 

Owing to the cool quality of the light in rooms of 
northern exposure warm color schemes, such as illus- 
trated in figures a and d, plate V, are needed to give a 
feeling of warmth and cheerfulness. 






1 


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Fig. a. 



Fig. b. 






; 
























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1 1 



Fig- c. Fig. d. 

Color schemes for assembly halls. 

PLATE VI. 



Decoration of the School and Home 35 

The lighter the tone of orange or yellow on the wall 
the greater the percentage of reflected light. For this 
reason it is apparent that fig. d would prove more satis- 
factory than fig. a, plate V, for a very dark room. Cream- 
tinted ceilings will aid in giving the required amount of 
reflected light in all rooms. If the wainscoting is 
treated in burlap, as is the case in many modern build- 
ings, it should be painted a somewhat darker tone of 
the wall color, or a color that is similar. However, if 
the interval is too great between the two tones the 
contrast is too violent to be pleasing, and if the wall 
color is very light it will appear faded and weak. On 
the other hand, the wainscoting should be dark enough 
to prevent finger marks and dirt from showing. 

The walls of bright sunny rooms require such tones 
of cool colors as will make a restful background for the 
eyes, and at the same time be bright enough to reflect 
the amount of light required. 

The tones of gray-green and gray in the color schemes 
illustrated in figures b and c, plate V, are quite dark 
enough for such rooms. 

The practical considerations which determine the 
color scheme of the class room should, in a measure, be 
observed in the Assembly Hall. 

However, its use calls for richer color treatment 
of walls and woodwork. The tone of the former should 
be deeper and richer than in the class room, and the 
woodwork may be painted lighter than the wall, as in 
fig. b, or darker, as in fig. c, plate VI. If the hall is used 
much in the daytime, and its lighting is poor, a scheme 
of yellow or brown will prove the right treatment. 



36 Decoration of the School and Home 

However, if it is a bright room or is used solely for even- 
ing functions, the schemes of grays, as figs, a and d, 
plate VI, are most satisfactory. 

The color of the woodwork and furniture in the class 
room should harmonize with the color of the walls. 
The former should be treated in brown stain, in rooms 
having warm color schemes, and in grayer stains in cool- 
colored rooms. When there is a choice in the selection 
of the desks, chairs, and bookcases, it is well to choose 
simple designs in colors as near the woodwork as possi- 
ble. A dull finish is more restful than varnished sur- 
faces. For this reason, golden oak furniture, owing 
to its prominent grain markings and highly polished 
surfaces, is not as desirable as furniture treated in duU 
colors. 

In old buildings, the woodwork is generally painted 
and grained to imitate oak. In such cases, it is well- 
nigh impossible to make the color of the wall harmonize 
with the crude yellow of the woodwork. Most satis- 
factory results can only be obtained by removing the 
old paint with paint-remover, and then staining or 
repainting to harmonize with the wall color. When 
this is impossible, the crude color of the woodwork 
may be made less obnoxious by painting the wall a 
soft intensity of yellow to match the lightest tone of the 
graining. 




Order should be the first law of the schoolroom. 
PLATE VU. 




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13, 



CHAPTER IV 

Principles of Arrangement 

Order should be the first law of the schoolroom, 
for the influence of well decorated walls will be much 
less effective where the room is in a continual state 
of disorder. When the teacher encourages the children 
to assume some of the responsibilities of the school 
housekeeping, it naturally follows that they will uncon- 
sciously form habits of neatness and order which will 
make them more willing and intelligent home helpers. 

Pupil committees should be appointed at regular 
intervals to keep books, maps, paint boxes, pencils, 
paper, and other materials in their proper places when 
not in use; hang exhibits of daily work; keep black- 
boards clean, and the floors clear of waste paper; and 
care for plants and arrange flowers in vases. 

Pictures and casts should be selected with the idea 
in mind that they are to be units related to the decora- 
tion as a whole, and therefore they must be so selected 
and arranged that not one subject can be eliminated 
without its loss being apparent at once. 

The decoration should impress one as a consistent 
whole, each picture and cast taking its place in perfect 
accord with its neighbors, and it should be evident 
that wholesome restraint has been exercised in the 
amount of decoration, so that the effect produced is 
of that restful quality which is so desirable in the school- 



40 



Decoration of the School and Home 



i 



Fig. a. 



room. Frequently, pictures and casts are excellent in 
themselves but through being crowded or faultily ar- 
ranged the decorative possibilities of the schoolroom 
are not realized. These problems in arrangement may 
be more readily solved by the teacher if considered in 
the light of the problems in design that she teaches the 
pupils, for they both involve the universal principles 
of rh5rthm, balance, and harmony. Consider for example 
the steps that a pupil takes in designing a booklet. 
First, the size and proportions of the whole are con- 
sidered, then follows the arrangement of title and text, 
with indications of illustrations and ornamentation, 
all of which must be in harmonious unity with the 
structure of the book itself. 

The problem of decorating the walls of the school- 
room then may be considered to correspond to the 
lesser problem of the booklet, in that the pictures and 
casts must be harmoniously related in size and pro- 
portion to the wall spaces that they decorate. 

It is obvious, through a comparison between fig. a and 
figs, b, c, and h, plates X and XI, that the pictures in fig. a 
are not only too small to make an effective decoration, 
but produce a spotty effect. The manner of hanging 




Fig. I. This over-decorated Kindergarten Room produces a confused, unrestful effect. 



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Fig. II. The decoration of this Kindergarten Room is dignified and restful. 

PLATE IX. 







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Fig. c. 






Fig. d. 





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PLATE X. 


















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PLATE XI. 



44 Decoration of the School and Home 

these pictures from one hook, instead of two as in 
fig. c, plate X, adds to the confusion and leads the 
eye away from the picture to the point of convergence of 
the wires. When a picture is hung from two hooks the 
wires are less noticeable for they are in harmony 
with the vertical lines of the room. Pictures and casts 
should be of such proportions and grouped in such a 
way as will harmonize best with the proportions of the 
wall spaces. 

From this standpoint, the most effective treatment 
of the wide horizontal spaces over blackboards consists 
of such plaster friezes and pictures as Thorwaldsen's 
"Triumphal Procession of Alexander," Alexander's 
"Evolution of the Book," and Blashfield's "Washington 
Laying His Commission at the Feet of Columbia." 
Subjects having these desirable porportions are not 
numerous, but the horizontal line may be emphasized 
in another way, by grouping two or three narrower 
subjects as in fig. c, plate X. 

The problem of arranging one or more subjects 
in a large space should be considered not only from 
the standpoint of harmonious space filling, but balance 
as well. When two pictures or casts of the same size 
and of equal attractive force are placed equal distances from 
the center of the wall space, as in figures c and d, plate X, 
the result gives a satisfactory feeling of balance through 
symmetry. But sometimes conditions will not admit 
of arranging things in a symmetrical manner, as in fig. 
e, where the unequal sizes and placing of the ventilator 
and clock must be balanced by placing the pictures and 
casts of varying sizes and shapes at such distances from 




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Decoration of the School and Home 47 

the center as will produce balance. The proportions of 
the spaces to the right of the ventilator and the left of the 
clock make them suitable for tall pictures. The greater 
part of the large picture in the space between the clock 
and ventilator is to the left of the central axis of the wall 
space, to counterbalance the greater weight of the attrac- 
tions of the objects on the right. The balance of the 
dark note of the ventilator is obtained by placing the 
darker picture to the left of the clock. Balance obtained 
in this way is frequently more interesting than through 
sjrmmetry, though a more difficult problem for the 
teacher to solve. 

The balancing of pictures and casts of unequal 
sizes and at varying distances from the center of a space 
may be likened to children playing seesaw, that is, 
the weight of a small boy will balance the weight of a 
larger boy, if the former has the longer end of the 
board. 

It will be observed then that a comparatively smaU 
picture may be made to balance a larger if it is placed 
at a great enough distance from the center of the space. 
But it must be remembered that the attractive force 
of the color values of a picture enters into the problem 
as well as its size and shape. Equal masses of white 
and black balance at equal distances from a center and 
the attraction of a very dark or light spot may be bal- 
anced by a smaller mass of bright color. All these 
conditions of size, relative position, and color value 
complicate the problem and render futile a solution 
by mathematical means. When any doubt arises re- 
garding the question in hand, it is well to place a plumb 



48 Decoration of the School and Home 

line so that it passes through the geometric center of 
the wall space and then the balance of the decorations 
may be more easily determined. 

The common practice of hanging pictures so that 
they rest on the blackboard molding should be dis- 
couraged as it causes them to tip out from the wall. 

Naturally, pictures and casts should be hung as low 
as possible so that the children may see them easily; 
but there should be a space of two or three inches 
between the bottom of the frame and the blackboard 
molding and casts should rest on special moldings 
provided for the purpose. 

If the teacher will compare pictures hung by two 
vertical wires from two hooks, with those suspended 
from a single hook, it will be apparent that the oblique 
lines formed by the wire in the latter case lead the eye 
away from the picture to the hook. 

Where the width of the picture greatly exceeds the 
height, as in Sargent's "Frieze of the Prophets," it is 
sometimes necessary to add a third wire at the center 
to prevent the frame sagging. 

Great care should be observed in decorating spaces 
between windows to obtain unity and balance. Each 
space is a unit in the whole scheme of decoration and 
must be harmoniously related to it. 

In such an arrangement of objects as fig. g, plate XI, 
the eye is attracted from left to right in an oblique direc- 
tion which, being out of harmony with the other lines of 
the room, creates a feeling of unrest. Such an effect may 
be avoided if the objects are placed on the same level as 
those on the other walls of the room, as in fig. i, plate XI. 







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CHAPTER V 

Treatment of Wall Spaces and Windows 

The front of the room is the center of interest from 
the pupils' point of view, and if the teacher has but one 
fine cast or picture, it should be placed where it will 
exert the most potent influence upon the children. 

The front wall of the room is admirably adapted for 
statues and bas-reliefs for the light from the side 
windows brings the modeling of casts into bold relief. 

Bas-reliefs having proportions similar to Thorwaldsen's 
"Triimiphal Procession of Alexander" will harmonize 
with the proportions of the wall space above the black- 
board and will prove to be a sufficient decoration, as in 
plate XII. A similar arrangement may be obtained with 
a picture having such proportions as "Washington 
Laying His Commission at the Feet of Columbia," or 
a series of small pictures framed together, as "Fairy 
Tale Series" by Jessie Willcox Smith. 

Very satisfactory effects are obtained by placing two 
large pictures as in plate XIV or a bas-relief in the 
center, and balancing on either side with a picture, as 
in fig. h, plate XI. 

As a necessary accompaniment to a well decorated 
wall, the corners, table, and blackboard should be kept 
in good order. An exhibition of daily work, however 
well arranged, is spotty in effect and when placed 
near a decoration, as in plate XIII, it produces a very 



52 Decoration of the School and Home 

strong attractive force which interferes with the full 
enjoyment of the pictures or casts. 

Work may be more fittingly exhibited either at the 
rear of the room as in plate XV, or where it will least 
interfere with the decoration. For the same reasons, 
drawings, small pictures, or written work should not be 
tacked upon the blackboard molding, except for a 
short period, when the teacher desires to have a lesson 
or class criticism. 

The table affords excellent opportunity for making 
the front of the room an inspiration of beauty. Too 
often it serves as a catch-all for books and materials, 
as in plate VII. Note the atmosphere of refinement 
that the table creates in the room illustrated in plate 
XVI. In the Everett School, in Boston, each class 
undertakes the study of one poet for the year and the 
teacher utilizes the table in a most attractive way, 
making, as it were, a shrine of beauty to the chosen 
poet. 

The table might further be utilized to illustrate 
the study of masters in art or music. 

A piece of statuary may be made an effective part 
of the decoration at the front of the room if placed 
upon a pedestal between the teacher's desk and the 
window. 

Generally, the side wall opposite the windows proves 
to be the most difficult one to decorate, for here are 
placed the clock and ventilators, and the teacher must 
endeavor to select pictures and casts of such propor- 
tions and tone value and arrange them in such a way 
that the strong attractions of the clock and ventilator 




The table at the front of the room afifords excellent opportunity for artistic arrangements of books, 

pictures, casts, and vases. 

PLATE XVI. 










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Decoration of the School and Home 55 

are in a measure reconciled. (See chapter IV on 
Principles of Arrangement.) 

The decoration on the back wall of the room should 
be in harmony with the other walls. What has been 
said concerning the front wall will apply here, although 
the most attractive casts and pictures should be at the 
front, the center of the child's interest. 

Unused blackboard spaces at the rear of the room 
may be covered with burlap on which drawings, written 
work, Japanese prints, or other interesting material 
may be exhibited. The placing of these exhibits on 
the burlap will offer excellent opportunities to the pupils 
to learn the principles of arrangement in a most prac- 
tical way. In the room illustrated in plate XV, the 
burlap was fastened to the wall with glue; and such 
careful attention is given to the arrangement of drawings 
that it forms one of the most attractive features in the 
decoration of the room. 

Another teacher in the same building brightened 
a rather dark corner in a most attractive manner by an 
arrangement of Japanese towels (see plate XIX) and 
the expense did not exceed one dollar. 

Note how the ugly ventilator shaft in plate IV has 
been made less noticeable by a Japanese towel which 
cost only twenty-five cents. 

When such beautiful material is available at so 
little expense, is there any excuse for lack of beauty 
in the schoolroom? 

The unused blackboard spaces may also be dec- 
orated with blackboard drawings as in plate XVII. 
These sketches, however, should not remain for any 



56 Decoration of the School and Home 

great length of time, for when they have outlived 
their usefulness they are distressing and become an 
eyesore. 

Owing to the proportions of the narrow spaces be- 
tween the windows in the schoolroom, pictures having 
greater height than width will produce the most har- 
monious decorative effect. 

The clock, which so often interferes with harmonious 
decoration when placed in the wide spaces over the 
blackboard, will fit admirably between the windows as 
in fig. i, plate XI, and circular bas-reliefs may be intro- 
duced to assist in giving shape harmony. The propor- 
tions of plaster busts make them admirably suited for 
such spaces, fig. i, plate XI, while statues, fig. g, 
though harmonious in proportion, are not appropriate 
here as they show to better advantage on pedestals 
nearer the eye level. Japanese prints are very effect- 
ive in the small spaces between the windows. They 
should be hung from a hook directly back of the picture. 
A frequent mistake in treating these narrow spaces is 
that, taken as a whole, the decoration does not balance 
as in fig. g, plate XI, in which case the eye is 
led in an oblique line from left to right instead of hori- 
zontally, as in fig. i. 

There is nothing which may be made to contribute 
more to the cheerfulness of a schoolroom than plants 
and flowers. They may be grown in window boxes 
and bowls, as illustrated in plates III and XVIII. 

Geraniums and rubber plants are perhaps the most 
hardy varieties, though ferns are most desirable when 
the temperature of the room will admit of their growing. 




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Decoration of the School and Home 59 

BULB CULTURE 

A continuous bloom of flowers may be enjoyed in 
the class room from January to Easter by means of 
planting bulbs of Double Roman, Grand, Paper White, 
Soleil d'Or, and Von Sion Narcissi; Princess Marianne 
and Due Van Thol Scarlet Tulips ; Jacques New Holland, 
Prince of Wales, and Charles Dickens Hyacinths, and 
the Hero Crocus. 

Also, bulbs of the Chinese Lily are very decorative 
and may be purchased for a few cents. They should 
be planted in a flat glass bowl or dish, in pebbles, and 
covered with water. The bulbs of the other varieties 
of plants should be piu-chased in the early fall and 
planted in low flowerpots and placed in a dark corner 
in a cool part of the school cellar until the tops begin 
to show above the surface two or three inches when 
they may be placed in the windows of the schoolroom. 

A fifth grade boy in the Ethical Culture School, 
New York City, describes the planting of bulbs in his 
room as follows: — 

"We thought it would be a nice idea to have a 
continuous bloom in our class room, so we ordered 
bulbs. We first put pieces of a broken flowerpot in the 
bottom of our pots, pans, and boxes for drainage. Then 
we added charcoal to sweeten the soil. Next came the 
soil with a little sand bed upon which to place the bulbs. 
This sand drains the water away from the base of the 
bulbs and so decay is prevented. Then we covered 
our bulbs over with soil." 

In country schools, where ground space is available, 
the pots containing the bulbs may be placed in a trench 



60 



Decoration of the School and Home 



just wide enough to receive them and eighteen inches 
to two feet in depth, and then covered with ashes. 

In the fall, sprays of barberry, thorn apple, and red 
swamp berries may be collected and placed in jars and 
bowls. They will last well into the winter and give 
effective touches of color to the room. Children should 




PLATE XX. 




Fig. I. Decoration of the school entrance, Pierce School, Brookline, Mass. 




Fig. II. Decoration of the school entrance. Dearborn School, Boston, Mass. 

PLATE XXI. 



Decoration of the School and Home 63 

be instructed in the proper way to select, pick, and 
arrange plants prays, as much waste of good material 
results when children are not guided in such matters. 
Teachers should demonstrate to the pupils that an 
arrangement consisting of flowers of one variety, in a 
vase of appropriate size and shape, is more effective 
than crowding many varieties of flowers into one vase. 

They may also observe that short-stemmed flowers 
look best in short-necked vases or bowls, and that 
long-stemmed varieties appear to better advantage in 
long-necked vases. 

Before placing the flowers in the receptacle, trim 
off superfluous leaves and branches and cut the stems 
of varying lengths, so that when arranged in the vase, 
the blossoms are not all on the same level. This may 
be done by holding the stems together and making a 
slanting cut with the scissors or knife. 

The arrangement of the spray and iris blossoms 
in sketches a and b, plate XX, is quite a prevalent one 
in the schoolroom and the home. It is evident that 
whatever beauty the foliage and flowers have is quite 
obliterated through bunching them too closely. The 
stems should be separated, so that their graceful curves 
may delight the eye. 

More interesting variety will be obtained if the 
flowers and foliage are arranged to compose within a 
triangle, as in sketches c and d. 




Mural Decorations in the Criminal Courts Building, New York. 

By Edward Simmons. 

Courtesy of The Curtis and Cameron Co., Boston, Mass. 

PLATE XXII. 



CHAPTER VI 

Selection of Subjects for Pupils 

The subject of the picture or cast should be selected 
not only for its decorative value but also from the stand- 
point of the child's interest and understanding. Young 
children seem to like best those subjects which are 
closely related to their daily experiences, while pupils 
of the higher grades are interested in landscapes and 
subjects related to their studies in History and Litera- 
ture. 

The beauty of the picture, however, should not be 
sacrificed for the sake of the story it may tell. 

Reproductions of works of art should hold preced- 
ence over photographs of people and scenery for it is 




Fig. I. Laocoon Group in the Salem (Mass.) Normal School Hall. 




Fig. II. This thoughtless arrangement of pictures is confusing and disorderly. 

PLATE XXm. 



Decoration of the School and Home 67 

just as important that we acquaint tlie child with the 
best in art as in literature. 

This valuable opportunity in training of taste through 
daily association with works of art is wholly lost in 
rooms that are decorated merely with photographs of 
scenery and people. 

One good photograph of a beautiful piece of scenery 
may be included in any scheme of decoration, but 
where there are many such subjects, it rather suggests 
the decoration of a transcontinental railroad office than 
a schoolroom. 

Some teachers believe that children can be made 
more patriotic by having a portrait of Washington or 
Lincoln to look at every day in the year. 

It is a question whether the lesson in patriotism 
might not be more effectively taught if the portraits 
of great men, unless masterpieces of art, are exhibited 
only for the celebration of their birthdays. 

There is a great need at the present time in arous- 
ing patriotism for American Art, through more extended 
use in schoolroom decoration of reproductions of the 
really fine achievements of our best American artists. 

What could better serve artistic as well as educa- 
tional needs than such decorations as Blashfield's 
"Washington Laying His Commission at the Feet of 
Columbia," plate XLI, Simmons' decoration of the 
Criminal Courts Building, New York, plate XXII, 
Alexander's "Evolution of the Book," or Dallin's statue 
of "Paul Revere," plate XXI? 



CHAPTER VII 

The Decoration of the School Entrance 
and Hallways 

The entrance to the school should be made attract- 
ive and inviting by a fine piece of statuary or bas-relief 
decoration. It is remarkable what a difference a few 
judiciously placed casts or pictures will make in a cheer- 
less hallway. The former should be so placed that 
the light will bring the modeling into bold relief. 
Pictures having light color values should be placed on 
dark walls and the darker pictures in light spaces. 

The ineffectiveness of many small pictures in a 
hallway is at once apparent in fig. II plate XXIII. Only 
large pictures that will carry well make appropriate 
decorations for such places, as in fig. I, plate XXIII. 

In primary buildings such subjects as "The 
Bambino," "Trumpeters," and "Singing Boys" by 
Delia Robbia; "Triumphal Procession of Alexander" 
by Thorwaldsen, make a direct appeal to little children, 
while the "Minerva," "King Arthur," "Diana the 
Huntress," "Apollo Belvedere," "Niobe," Dallin's 
"Paul Revere," "Scout" and "Medicine Man," "II 
Penseroso," or the "Laocoon" group are appropriate 
for the grammar and high schools. They should 
be mounted on pedestals which are related harmoni- 
ously in proportion with the statue and stained to har- 
monize with the woodwork. 

Drapery of dark brown fastened to the wall or 




An attractive office entrance. 
PLATE XXrV. 



Decoration of the School and Home 



suspended from a pole back of the statue will assist 
greatly in bringing it into relief. (See fig. II, plate XXI, 
and fig. I, plate XXHI. 

THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE 

The ofiice generally strikes the keynote to the deco- 
ration of the building. If the principal exercises good 
taste in the selection and arrangement of furniture, 
pictures, casts, and plants, and in the choice of harmoni- 
ous colors for his office, its influence will be felt through- 
out the school. On the other hand, if you find him 
siuTounded by a state of disorder, furniture that is ugly 
in form and color, inharmonious color in floor covering, 
woodwork, and walls, and the latter covered with a 
disorderly collection of cheap pictures, you will generally 
observe this disorder and lack of harmony in other parts 
of the building, for the teachers and pupils look to the 
principal for inspiration and are strongly influenced 
by the example that he sets before them. 

How may the office be made attractive? First 
of all be certain that the effect of the office is sunny, 
for many go there who need cheering up. This may be 
accomplished through treating the walls in tones of 
warm yellows or browns depending upon the amount 
of light that the room receives. 

Harmony between the color of the floor covering 
and the wall may be secured through the use of tones 
of the same or similar colors. If rugs are chosen, strong 
colors or loud patterns should be avoided. In fact, owing 
to the comparatively small size of this room, if a pattern 
is used at all it should be very subdued. 



72 Decoration of the School and Home 

The color of the furniture and woodwork should be 
analogous to that of the wall and floor. The effect of 
the darker stains and unpolished surfaces is richer and 
more restful than the so-called golden oak and other 
highly polished surfaces having prominent grain mark- 
ings. Unity is frequently lost through using pieces of 
furniture having totally different designs and colors. 

As a rule, the office has a somewhat crowded 
appearance, owing to its small dimensions, and the 
number of pieces of furniture required. This efifect may 
be offset somewhat if the desk, table, and bookcase are 
not covered with books, pamphlets, casts, bric-a-brac, 
and plants, and the decoration of the wall consists of a 
few well-chosen pictures. The table or desk may 
be made sufficiently attractive by one beautiful object, 
as a plant, vase, bowl, or cast. The large ferns, rubber 
plants, or pieces of statuary are most appropriate on 
separate stands. Owing to their height they do not 
appear well perched on the end of the desk or bookcase. 

THE TEACHERS' REST ROOM 

The decoration of the teachers' rest room should 
be restful and homelike. Such a result has been ad- 
mirably achieved in the illustration, plate XXVI. The 
general homelike atmosphere, refinement, and good 
taste are at once apparent in the quiet design of the rug 
and upholstery; the choice of one real good picture 
of effective size in preference to many small, inferior 
pictures; and in the pleasing design of the furniture. 
The homelike quality which such furniture creates 
makes it especially desirable for such rooms. 




Teachers' rest rooms should have a homelike atmosphere. 
PLATE XXVI. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Decoration of the Assembly Hall 

The Assembly Hall is the best room in the school 
since the children assemble there on special occasions 
long to be remembered. 

Such gatherings will be more impressive when held 
in a hall that has been made beautiful through the 
combined efforts of children, parents, teachers, and 
principal. 

It is surprising to see how such efforts have made 
even unsightly halls attractive, fig. II, plate XLIV. 

The mural painting makes the ideal decoration 
for the Assembly Hall. 

It is hoped that artists in the future may co-operate 
with School Committees so that the school children 
may come under the inspiration of fine decorative art. 
The architecture of our modern schools is admirably 
adapted to the artist's best efforts. 

A very creditable beginning has been made in one 
or two cities by advanced art students working under 
the supervision of teachers who are well equipped with 
a knowledge of mural painting, gained through practical 
experience. At the present time, students of the Massa- 
chusetts Normal Art School are planning a decoration, 
imder the direction of Richard Andrew, for the Assem- 
bly Hall of the Prince School, in Boston. The only 
expense of this work, which covers the cost of materials, 
is to be met by the Schoolhouse Commission. 



76 Decoration of the School and Home 

The architectural quality of Greek sculpture makes 
it very effective decorative material for the hall. Friezes 
and statues should be placed where they will harmonize 
best with the lines of the room and great care should 
be observed to allow for sufficient background about 
each subject, as confusion may result, as in plate XXVIII, 
where the subjects are crowded. 

Friezes are very effective but they should be placed 
near the ceiling as in plate XXX, for they were designed 
originally to be seen from this point of view, and, there- 
fore, any such arrangement as plate XXXI is inappro- 
priate. 

A few busts will suffice in any scheme of decoration. 
They may be placed on brackets in the narrow spaces 
between windows or upon a pedestal in corners. Their 
decorative effectiveness, however, is quite limited, as 
they do not carry well when viewed from a distance. 
This defect is quite apparent in fig. I, plate XLIV. 

Since the stage is the center of interest in the hall, 
the supreme effort in decoration should be centered 
there. 

The frieze in plate XXX makes an adequate decora- 
tion and harmonizes admirably with the structural lines 
of the wall. Wall panels on either side of the stage may 
be decorated with bas-reliefs or pictures having harmoni- 
ous proportions, while statues or busts on pedestals may 
be placed in the corners formed by the front and side 
walls. The decoration of the side walls may consist 
wholly of statuary and bas-reliefs or pictures and casts. 
The largest sized subjects will produce most satisfactory 
results and they should be selected to harmonize with 







The most beautiful way to illuminate the Assembly Hall is by reflected light. 

Courtesy of Donald McDonald, Boston, Mass. 

PLATE XXVII. 




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Decoration of the School and Home 79 

the proportions of the panels or spaces which they are 
to decorate. 

Framed pictures, as a rule, are not as decorative in 
large halls as casts. 

The thoughtless arrangement of clocks, ventilators, 
etc., frequently makes the problem in decoration ex- 
tremely difficult. The suggestive sketches on plates 
X and XI will serve to show how the problems of balance 
in such cases may be solved. 

The most beautiful way of lighting the assembly 
hall is by reflected light. 

It is no longer necessary to put up with the ugly 
fixtures which mar so many well decorated assembly 
halls for at the present time beautiful designs, as illus- 
trated in plate XXVII, are available. Simple shades 
with little or no ornamentation are most suitable designs 
for the school. There is no excuse for the ugly venti- 
lators that mar the appearance of so many interiors 
when such attractive designs as illustrated in plate 
XXX may be obtained. 




Pupils of the Salem (Mass.) Normal Practice School studying statuary 
in the Normal School Hall. 

PLATE XXrX. 



CHAPTER rX 



The Influence of Good Decoration 

The silent influence for good of a well decorated 
building, upon the child, can never be measured. Yet 
teachers should not rely too much upon this unknown 
quantity or the greatest opportunities for cultural train- 
ing may be lost. In such cases, children frequently 
form wrong impressions of the world's masterpieces, 
as in one school where the committee of the graduating 
class was debating upon the most fitting manner for 
the expenditure of money for a school gift, whereupon 
one boy declared, " that, in his opinion, it would be far 




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Decoration of the School and Home %^ 

better to use the money in repairing the broken arms 
and heads on the statues in the school rather than buy 
new ones." 

Excellent training is afforded when the pupils are 
first encouraged to express freely their impression of 
each picture and piece of statuary in the schoolroom. 
Then the artist's message may be more fully revealed 
by the teacher. Compositions may be written corre- 
lating with the work in English and finally bound to make 
an Art notebook. The supervisor of drawing may be a 
great source of inspiration in this work, through lectures 
to pupils, teachers, and parents. 



CHAPTER X 

Processes of Reproduction 

Carbon and solar prints, photographs, photogravures, 
half-tones, and lithographs are being used in school 
decoration at the present time. 

Of the monochrome prints, the carbon is generally 
the most satisfactory form of reproduction as it is made 
by printing the carbon paper in contact with a negative 
of the same size as the print, thereby insuring sharpness. 
The depth of tone in the shadows and gradation of tones 
from shadows to lights are more truthfully reproduced 
than in many of the bromide enlargements. 

The bromide is usually made by enlarging from 
a small negative on to a large sheet of bromide paper. 
The focusing is difficult, and, as a rule, the bromide is 
not as sharp as a carbon. The negatives from the 
former are often made from other prints instead of 
from the object itself and in such cases the pictures 
are not satisfactory. 

There are many inferior reproductions of this sort 
on the market and teachers should seek expert advice 
when purchasing bromide enlargements. 

Up to the present time, owing to inferior color repro- 
ductions, there has been little attempt to introduce 
colored pictures in the schoolroom. 

Hand-colored reproductions of masterpieces are 
satisfactory when executed by a good artist, but there 



Decoration of the School and Home 85 

are many such works on the market of doubtful value 
and before purchasing such, it is well to seek the advice 
of one who is familiar with the original paintings. 

The improvement in colored lithography and hand- 
colored prints affords an opportunity at last of satisfy- 
ing the child's craving for color. The lithographs 
made from the original paintings by Riviere and 
the Rhine prints are beautiful in color, and their deco- 
rative qualities make them eminently suitable for school 
decoration. 



HENRI RIVIERE AND HIS ART 

"Henri Riviere is a Frenchman, born in Paris fifty 
years ago. He, like many other young persons, was a 
disappointment to his family, in not having any taste 
for a business career; but having shown a decided bent 
for the art of painting, he was not hampered by parental 
opposition. His etchings are noted; he paints in oils 
and water colors and for the last twelve or fifteen years 
he has produced some remarkably fine color prints from 
water color sketches made for the most part in Brittany, 
where he lives from May until October. He takes his 
summer store of observations thus recorded in ex- 
quisite colors and returns to his native and beloved 
Paris, where through the winter he etches on stones 
from which his color prints are produced. These are 
not left to any hazard of commercialism, for Riviere 
supervises personally every stage of the work. 

" Many of the inks used by him are of his own making, 
because he cannot find what he wishes on the open 



86 Decoration of the School and Home 

market. Most of the prints are made by the application 
of fourteen or sixteen superimposed colors which ex- 
plains, in part, the wonderful effect of atmosphere which 
is a distinguishing feature in Riviere's work. 

"The color prints are, for the most part, nature poems 
of land and water forms, cloud masses, sunset, twilight, 
moonrise and night, dawn and evening: The Cape, 
stretching far out into the limitless ocean; the Moun- 
tain, silhouetted against the sky, glorified by the after- 
glow reflected upon its snow-capped crest; the grass- 
grown valley on the border of which the stone cottages 
of Brittany fishermen are seen. These and many other 
scenes are not of any particular locality, they are the 
wonders of old Mother-Earth as she reveals herself in a 
universal message of beauty, although the source of inspir- 
ation to Riviere has been the western confines of France. 

"The series called 'The Enchantment of the Hours' 
brings us closely in touch with mankind, for in these 
pictures we see humanity at its daily occupations. The 
wonder of this 'Enchantment of the Hours' series 
is the different conception from that of the artist of 
classical times. Guido Reni, for example, marks the 
passing of the hours by the forms of beautiful maidens 
attendant upon the sun god in his chariot, borne upon 
the clouds, far above the earth. 

"Riviere marks the passing hours by The Dawn, 
Twilight, The Mist, The Sunset, and other exquisite 
and fleeting impressions of nature. Is his point of 
view not that of the Christian artist as contrasted with 
that of the Pagan? Is it not the outcome of man's 
experience and belief in life hereafter, in contrast with 



Decoration of the School and Home 89 

belief in the present life only with a hierarchy of beauti- 
ful gods and goddesses dwelling upon Mount Olympus? 

"Henri Riviere's art has the large qualities of wall 
painting. He has simplicity of style, akin to that of 
Puvis de Chavannes. He is imbued with the spirit of 
the Japanese art. In fact this sympathy is so close that he 
has been honored by the Japanese artist, Tadamasa 
Hayashi, who has commissioned Riviere to decorate 
his house in Tokio. 

"Art instructors in the schools find Riviere's prints 
full of inspiration for their pupils and the teachers of 
general subjects, also, are able to develop much of their 
teaching through the themes of his pictures. The 
'Views of Nature' are particularly adapted to the needs 
of the schoolroom; they feed the inborn love of color 
which has suffered in the past for want of nourishment; 
they lift up the heart and understanding and let imagi- 
nation have play. The}'^ bid the insignificant bare walls 
retire and let the world of beauty in nature, interpreted 
in beautiful lines and color, come before the eyes of 
the children." — Mrs. Ada W. Tillinghast. 



\ 



CHAPTER XI 

Picture Framing 

The effect of a picture is added to or spoiled by its 
frame. There is one safe rule to go by in framing 
pictures; the moment the frame is noticeable, 
there is something wrong with it. "A frame should be 
a part of the picture; it should be of it, but never in 
evidence." Plain moldings generally make the most 
satisfactory frames. They should be stained to har- 
monize with the prevailing tone of the picture. When 
mats are advisable they should never be white but 
a somewhat lighter tone of the frame color. 

Gilt frames are altogether too conspicuous in a 
schoolroom. They were originally used to frame 
richly colored paintings placed in dim cathedrals; often 
as altarpieces, where the gold of the frames repeated 
and emphasized the golden vessels used about the 
altar. In such surroundings anything less rich than 
gold would not have been in good taste. Then in large 
galleries of great paintings, where some method of 
framing must be adopted that will not let one picture 
jump out and "kill" its neighbor, gold was adopted 
as a compromise. 

The most appropriate treatment for paintings con- 
sists of the dull gold or bronze while the frames of color 
prints should be stained in a darker tone of the pre- 
dominating color of the picture. 




Fig. I. The effect of the lilies is lost in the details of this 
inappropriate frame. 




Fig. IT. There is nothing in this frame to detract from 
the picture. 



PLATE XXXin. 




Fig. I. Such frames detract from the picture and are 
inappropriate for the schoolroom. 




Fig. II. This frame subordinates itself to the picture 
and serves to emphasize its beauty. 



PLATE XXXrV. 



Decoration of the School and Home 93 

By comparison between the illustrations on plates 
XXXIII, XXXIV, and XXXV, it is quite apparent that simple 
frames serve to emphasize the beauty of the picture, 
while the eye is directed away from the subjects by 
those frames that are excessively ornamented. 

How apparent this is in the illustration of the over- 
ornamented framing of the Sistine Madonna, fig. II, 
plate XXXV. The full beauty of the picture is brought 
out by the simple, dignified framing of fig. I. Owing 
to this, you see nothing but the picture. 

This is also true of the simple framing of the "Wood 
Interior" by Diaz, fig. II, plate XXXIV, and Sargent's 
"Lily-Rose" picture, plate XXXIII. You look straight 
into the depths of this Diaz picture and the detail of 
the lilies in the latter may be fully enjoyed against 
the simple molding. 



CHAPTER XII 

A Suggestive List of Pictures and Casts for 
Elementary and High Schools 

The following list of subjects has been selected 
from the standpoint of the child's interest and under- 
standing, but the teacher should not necessarily confine 
her selection to the comparatively few subjects listed 
for her grade. It should be understood that any such 
list must be elastic:^ 



Grade I 



Madonna of the Chair 

Baby Stuart 

Prince Don Balthazar Carlos 

Little Brother 

Mother and Daughter 

Feeding Her Birds 

Belated Kid 

Twin Lambs 

Little Strawberry Girl 

Sleeping Hound 

A Fascinating Tale 

Mother and Child 

Can't you Talk 

A Little Mother J. W. 

The Picture Book 



Raphael 

Van Dyck 

Velasquez 

Meyer von Bremen 

Le Brun 

Millet 

William M. Hunt 

William M. Hunt 

Reynolds 

Landseer 

Ronner 

Toulmouche 

Holmes 

Alexander (Copley Print) 

Johansen (Copley Print) 



Decoration of the School and Home 



97 



Fairy Tale Series 
Studies of Children 
Minnehaha and Hiawatha 
Cat and Kittens at Play 



Jessie Willcox Smith 

Elizabeth S. Green 

Taylor 

Adam 



Riviere Color Prints 

Views of Nature Series 
Enchantment of the Hours Series 

Rhine Color Prints 

Who Will be a Soldier 
London Bridge 

Plaster Casts 
Meditation 
Portrait of a Boy 
Laughing Boy 
Bambino 

Cupids from Tomb of Henry IV 
Animals 



The Bay 
The Rainbow 



Rehm-Victor 
Rehm-Victor 

Pietro Ghiloni 

Settignano 

Donatello 

Andrea della Robbia 



Grade II 

Sistine Madonna (Detail) 

Children of the Shell 

The Knitting Lesson 

Love Me, Love My Dog 

The Drinking Trough 

Shepherdess 

A Helping Hand 

Saved 

Distinguished Member of the Humane 



Barge 



Raphael 

Murillo 

Millet 

Reynolds 

Dupre 

Jacques 

Renouf 

Landseer 

Society 

Landseer 



98 



Decoration of the School and Home 



King Charles Spaniels 


Landseer 


Foxes 


Liljefois 


Girl with Cat 


Hoecker 


Mother and Daughter 


Douglas 


Midday Meal 


Moiland 


Geese 


Pearson 


School in Brittany 


Geoffrey 


Five Senses Jessie 


Willcox Smith 


Out for a Sail 


Walden 


Mother and Child 


Brush 


The Sheepfold 


Jacques 


Feeding the Sheep 


Jacques 


Riviere Color Prints 




Views of Nature Series 


The Forest 


A Fishing Village in Brittany Series 


The Boys 


Rhine Color Prints 




A May Morning 


Fikentscher 


Old King Cole 


Rehm- Victor 


Land of the Merry Makers 


Rehm-Victor 


Plaster Casts 




Singing Cupids 


Bologna 


Spring 


Bouchardon 


Summer 


Bouchardon 


Autumn 


Bouchardon 


Winter 


Bouchardon 


Animals 


Barge 


Grade III 




St. Anthony of Padua 


Murillo 


Divine Shepherd 


Murillo 




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Decoration of the School and Home 101 

Girl with Apple Greuze 

Girl with Lamb Greuze ^ 

The Balloon Dupre 

Shoeing the Bay Mare Landseer 

At the Watering Trough Dagnan-Bouveret 

Rest in Flight Knaus 

Deer in the Forest Bonheur 

Boy Sailing a Boat Israels 

The Mother's School Geoffrey 

The Little Shrimp Fisherman Blommers 

Hiawatha '---' ~ Norris 

The First Music Lesson Francis Day 

Bedtime Stories Francis Day 

Studies of Children Alice Barber 

The Children's Hour Taylor 

Angel with Lute Carpaccio 

The Return to the Farm Troyon 

Farm Scene with Cattle van Marcke 

The Strawberry Girl Reynolds 

On the Farm Millet 

Riviere Color Prints 
Views of Nature and Enchantment of the Hours Series 

Rhine Color Prints 

Swans Schramm-Zittau 

Cinderella and the Doves Herrman 
The Pied Piper of Hamelin 

Plaster Casts 

Apollo in a Chariot (Modern) 

Morning Thorwaldsen 



102 



Decoration of the School and Home 



Children Singing and Playing Instruments (Renaissance) 



The Choir 
Madonna and Child 
Angel Head 



Angela 

Sistine Madonna 

Bambino 

Cherubs Dancing 

Children of Charles First 

Feeding the Hens 

The Little Shepherdess 

The First Step 

The Goose Girl 

Innocence 

The Connoisseurs 

Dignity and Impudence 

Little Mother 

Landscape with Sheep 

Caritas 

The Torn Hat 

Deacon's One Hoss Shay 

The Village Blacksmith 

The Spinners 

Boy with the Rabbits 

Angel Heads 

Horse Fair 

The Balloon 

The Mill 

The Corn Field 

Children Catching Minnows 



(Cantoria Frieze) 

Michael Angelo 

Nanne d'Antonio di Banco 

Grade IV 

Fra Angelico 

Raphael 

Andrea della Robbia 

Donatello 

Van Dyck 

Millet 

Millet 

Millet 

Millet 

Sir Joshua Reynolds 

Landseer 

Landseer 

J. W. Alexander 

Couse 

Abbott H. Thayer 

Thomas Sully 

Howard Pyle 

Taylor 

Walter Gay 

Johansen 

Sir Joshua Reynolds 

Rosa Bonheur 

Dupre 

van Marcke 

Constable 

Curran 




Large spaces over stair-landings are well suited for casts or pictures. 
PLATE XXXVIII. 




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Decoration of the School and Home 



105 



Riviere Color Prints 




Views of Nature Series 


The Sunset 




The Cape 


A Brittany Fishing Village Series The Boys Fishing 


Rhine Color Prints 




Call of the Shepherd 


von Volkmann 


Crows in Snow 


Fikentscher 


On the Heath 


Osswald 


Plaster Casts 




Aurora 


Guido Reni 


Morning 


Thorwaldsen 


Night 


Thorwaldsen 


Alexandrian Procession 


Thorwaldsen 


Children Playing with Tambourines and 




Cymbals 


(Renaissance) 


Cupid with Bow 


Moreau 


Singing Boys 


(Florentine) 


Grade V 




Prince Don Balthazar Carlos 


Velasquez 


Madonna of the Chair 


Raphael 


St. John the Baptist 


Murillo 


Immaculate Conception 


Murillo 


Melon Eaters 


Murillo 


Song of the Lark 


Breton 


Return from the Fields 


Breton 


The Gleaner 


Breton 


George Washington 


Stuart 


Arrival of the Shepherds 


Le RoUe 


The Shepherdess 


Le RoUe 



106 Decoration of the School and Home 



Oxen Ploughing 


Rosa Bonheur 


Age of Innocence Sir 


Joshua Reynolds 


Penelope Boothby Sir 


Joshua Reynolds 


The Belated Kid 


Wm. M. Hunt 


Girl Reading 


Wm. M. Hunt 


Innocence (Mother, Child, Lamb) 


Bouguereau 


Princes in the Tower 


Millais 


Fog Warning 


Winslow Homer 


Old Clock on the Stairs 


Taylor 


Boy Sailing a Boat 


Israels 


Spring 


Mauve 


Autumn 


Mauve 


Riviere Color Prints 




Views of Nature Series 


The Forest 




The Sea 


Enchantment of the Hours Series 


Twilight 


A Brittany Fishing Village Series 


The Port 


Rhine Color Prints 




The Sea Gulls 


Matthaei 


Earlv Soring in the Meadow 


Herdtle 



Plaster Casts 

Tnimpeters and Dancing Children Luca della Robbia 

Drummers Luca della Robbia 

Aurora Guido Rem 
Triimiphal Entry of Alexander into Babylon Thorwaldsen 

Grade VI 

The Gleaners Millet 

Bringing Home the Newborn Calf Rosa Bonheur 

Flight into Egypt Durer 




55— The Sea Gulls. 





49— The Glacier. 



4S— Solitary Valley. 





5t) — Swans. 



210— .\ May M<.rnin,u. 





_'l.^ — AiitUTim Air. 

The above are reproductions or a tew or " The Rhine Prints sold hy Atkinson, Mentzer Gf Co. 



PLATE XL. 



Decoration of the School and Home 



\m 



The End of Labor 


Breton 


The Angelus 


MUlet 


The Shepherdess 


Millet 


By the River 


Le RoUe 


A Kabyl 


Schreyer 


The End of the Day 


Adam 


Landscape with Cattle 


van Marcke 


Advance Guard 


Schreyer 


Oxen Going to Labor 


Troyon 


The Little Seamstress 


Israels 


Queen Louise 


Richter 


Carnation-Lily and LUy-Rose 


Sargent 


Picture Writing 


Remington 


Landscape with Windmill 


Ruysdael 


Wood Gatherers 


Corot 


Spring 


Corot 


Riviere Color Prints 




Views of Nature Series 


The River 


Enchantment of the Hours Series 


Setting Sun 


Port of Loguivy at Low Tide 




Rhine Color Prints 




The Plowman 


Georgi 


Harvest Time 


Hosse 



Plaster Casts 
David Verrocchio 

Singing Boys Luca della Robbia 

St. George Donatello 

Triumphal Entry of Alexander into Babylon Thorwaldsen 
Landing of Columbus 
Landing of Pilgrims 



110 



Decoration of the School and Home 



Grade VU 




Moonlight 


De Haas 


Avenue Middelharnis 


Hobbema 


Madonna of the Goldfinch 


Raphael 


Aurora 


Guido Reni 


Portrait of a Lady 


Franz Hals 


Knitting Lesson 


Millet 


Washerwoman 


Millet 


The Travellers 


Millet 


Holland Cattle 


Troyon 


Dance of the N5miphs 


Corot 


Pilgrim Exiles 


Boughton 


Pilgrims Going to Church 


Boughton 


Priscilla 


Boughton 


Flight of Night 


Wm. M. Hunt 


Bugle Call 


Wm. M. Hunt 


Sir Galahad 


G. F. Watts 


King Arthur 


Vischer 


After the Storm 


Israels 


The Frugal Meal 


Israels 


The Child Handel 


Dicksee 


Search for the Holy Grail 


Edwin A. Abbey 


Monuments of Egypt (Color Print) 


Jules Guerin 


Washington Monument (Color Print) 


Jules Guerin 


Hour of Reverie 


Bridgman 


Hunting with a Hawk 


Bridgman 


Holland Cattle and Fishing Boats 


Mesdag 


Hanging the Crane 


Taylor 


Priscilla and John Alden 


Taylor 


Pictures of Japanese Art 


Hiroshigi 


Pictures of Japanese Art 


Hokusai 




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Decoration of the School and Home 



113 



Riviere 


Color Prints 


Enchantment of the Hours Series 


The Wind 


A Brittany Fishing Village Series 


The Old Men 


Quay Austerlitz 






A Street, Treboul 






Rhine 


Color Prints 


Last Look 




Wieland 


The Glacier 




Hoch 


Ripening Wheat Field 




von Volkmann 


Fishing Boats 




Hoch 


Plaster Casts 




Mercury 


( 


Giovanni da Bologna 


Faun Plajdng Flute 


(In Villa Borghese, Rome) 


David 




Mercie 


The Minute Man 




D. C. French 


Chariot Race 




Lisbon 


Bacchantes Dancing 




(Louvre) 


Pelops and Hippodamia 




(Berlin Museiun) 


Children Dancing 




Luca della Robbia 


Boys Singing from Book 




Luca della Robbia 



Paul Revere's Ride (after the decoration 

in the State House, Boston, Mass.) Robert Reid 



Grade VIII 
Moses 

Sistine Madonna 
Madonna Gran' Duca 
St. Michael and the Dragon 
The Night Watch 
Portrait of an Old Lady 
Fighting Temeraire 



Michael Angelo 

Raphael 

Raphael 

Guido Reni 

Rembrandt 

Rembrandt 

Turner 



114 



Decoration of the School and Home 



The Sower 

Joan of Arc 

Going to Work 

The Golden Stairs 

Hope 

Automedon and the Horses of Achilles 

Portrait of His Mother 

Isabella and the Pot of Basil 

Halt of the Wise Men 

Bugle Call 

Medicine Man 

Signal of Peace 

Appeal to the Great Spirit 

Evangeline 

The Lake 

St. Barbara 

The Golden Stairs 



MiUet 

Bastien-Lepage 

Millet 

Burne-Jones 

Burne-Jones 

Regnault 

Whistler 

J. W. Alexander 

La Farge 

Wm. M. Hunt 

Cyrus Dallin 

Cyrus DaUin 

Cyrus DaUin 

Taylor 

Corot 

Palma il Vecchio 

Burne-Jones 



Mural Decorations 
Boston Public Library Decorations Puvis de Chavannes 



The Prophets 

Decorations in Trinity Church 

Evolution of the Book 

Boy of Winander 

Gansrmede 

Spring Ploughing 

Young Pioneer 

Shaw Memorial 

The Puritan 

Robert Louis Stevenson 

Statue of Sherman 



John S. Sargent 

La Farge 

J. W. Alexander 

H. O. Walker 

H. O. Walker 

H. O. Walker 

Douglas Volk 

Augustus Saint-Gaudens 

Augustus Saint-Gaudens 

Augustus Saint-Gaudens 

Augustus Saint-Gaudens 



Decoration of the School and Home 115 

Plaster Casts 
Boys Singing from Book Luca della Robbia 

Victory (From Trajan's Column, Rome) 

Frieze of the Parthenon 

Paul Revere Cyrus Dallin 

The Medicine Man Cyrus Dallin 

The Scout Cyrus Dallin 

Slave (From Statue by Michael Angelo) 

Apollo Belvedere (Bust) 

Riviere Color Prints 
Views of Nature Series Twilight 

Enchantment of the Hours Series Coming Storm 

The Snow 
Paris from Notre Dame Towers 
The Old Mill at Loguivy 
Arrival of the Sardine Fishermen at Treboul 

Rhine Color Prints 

A Lowland Village Strich-Chapell 

Autimin in the Valley ' Strich-Chapell 

The Matterhom Wieland 

Evening Quiet Kampmann 

Autumn Air Ortlieb 

High Schools 
Riviere Color Prints 
The Seine River and Trocadero Palace 
The Fortifications of Paris 
Paris from Montmartre 
Swan Island 
Institute of France and Cite 



116 Decoration of the School and Home 

Views of Nature Series Night at Sea 

Woods in Winter 

The Glade 

Summer Evening 

The Cape 

Enchantment of the Hours Series A Dead Cahn 

Last Rays of the Sun 
Dawn 





Full Moon 




Reflections 




The Mist 




The Tempest 




Night 


Rhine Color Prints 




Old Doorway 


Bendrat 


St. Mary's in Danzig 


Bendrat 


Marienburg 


Bendrat 


Autumn on the Hillside 


von Volkmann 


Schwabisch Hall 


Beckert 


Early Spring in the Meadow 


Herdtle 


Hertig's Fountain in Rothenburg 


Beckert 


Executioner's Walk in Nuremburg 


Beckert 


Out of Old Frankfurt 


Beckert 


Brook in Winter 


Felber 


Temple of Paestum 


Roman 


The Glacier 


Hoch 


Morning in the Mountains 


Hoch 


Swans 


Schramm-Zittau 


An Autumn Evening 


Kampmann 


Fishing Boats 


Hoch 


A May Morning 


Fikentscher 




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Assembly Hall of the Girls' High School, Boston, Mass. 



PLATE 




Owing to its architectural quality, antique statuary makes the most effective decoration 

for the Assembly Hall. 



£LIII. 




Fig. I. Too many busts are undesirable in the Assembly Hall. 




""■■'■■•■IM.BII 



Fig. 11. The unattractiveness of this hall was made less noticeable 
by its well chosen decorations. 

PLATE XLIV. 



Decoration of the School and Home 



121 



St. George and the Dragon 


Suess 


The Foot Race 




Schneider 


A Lowland Village 




Strich-Chapell 


The Plowman 




Georgi 


The Matterhom 




Wieland 


The Great Sphinx 






The Great Pyramids of 


Gizeh 




Pyramids and Sphinx 






Kamak, Great Hall of 


Columns 




Abu Simbel, Facade of 


Larger Temple 


Temple of Edfu 






Temple of Isis, Philae 






The Acropolis, Athens 






Alice Freeman Palmer '. 


Memorial 


French 


Alma Mater 




French 


King Arthur 




Vischer 


Angel with Tambourine 


Fra 


Giovanni Angelico 


Angel with Harp 


Fra 


Giovanni Angelico 


Vision of St. Bernard 




Filippino Lippi 


Angel Playing Viol 




Melozzo da Forli 


Madonna del Arpie 




Andrea Del Sarto 


Delphic Sibyl 




Michael Angelo 


An Athlete 




Michael Angelo 


Sistine Madonna 




Raphael 


Mona Lisa 




Leonardo da Vinci 


St. Barbara 




Palma il Vecchio 


Aiu"ora 




Guido Reni 


Cicero's Oration against 


Catiline 


Maccari 


Laughing Cavalier 




Hals 


Spring 




Mauve 


Autmnn 




Mauve 



122 



Decoration of the School and Home 



A Misty Morning in Holland 

Portrait of Himself as an OflScer 

Man with Fur Cap 

The Syndics 

Landscape with Windmill 

View of Delft 

Joan of Arc Hearing the Voices 

Matinee 

The Lake 

"1814" 

The Angelus 

The Gleaners 

The Horses of Achilles 

The Great Temple at Paestum 

The Parthenon 

Temple of Victory 

South Porch of the Erechtheum 

The Colosseum 

The Arch of Constantine, Rome 

The Forum, Rome 

Three Fates, from the East Pediment of 

St. Peter's and Vatican, Rome 

St. John Lateran Cloisters 

St. Paul Without-the-Walls Cloisters 

Milan Cathedral 

Notre Dame Cathedral 

Amiens Cathedral 

Cologne Cathedral 

Court of Lions, Alhambra 

Westminster Abbey, London 

Poets' Comer 



Mauve 

Rembrandt 

Rembrandt 

Rembrandt 

Ruysdael 

Vermeer 

Bastien-Lepage 

Corot 

Corot 

Meissonier 

Millet 

Millet 

Regnault 



the Parthenon 



Decoration of the School and Home M?> 

Canterbury Cathedral 

Durham Cathedral 

The Choir of Lincoln Cathedral 

The Houses of Parliament 

The Tower of London 

Kenilworth Castle 

Stratford-on-Avon 

House Where Shakespeare Was Bom 

Ann Hathaway's Cottage 

The Cathedral of St. Mark's 

The Grand Canal 

Derwentwater 

Niagara Falls 

Thomas Jefferson 

Alexander Hamilton 

Robert Bums Nasmyth 

James Russell Lowell 

Alfred Lord Tennyson Arnault 

Mt. Vernon 

Capitol at Washington 

Abraham Lincoln Saint-Gaudens 

Statue of Gen. W. T. Sherman Saint-Gaudens 

U. S. Frigate Constitution Johnson 

Signing Declaration of Independence Trumbull 

Courtship of Miles Standish Turner (Etching) 

The Theseum 

Theseus, from East Pediment of Parthenon 

Countess Potocka 

Homer 

Abbotsford 

Shakespeare Portrait 



124 



Decoration of the School and Home 



Madonna of Tribune 

Portrait of Himself 

Pres Gisors 

Portrait of Mrs. Siddons 

An Evening in May 

Napoleon 

Bargello Palace Stairs 

Colombo Breakwater 

Landscape 

The Falling Gladiator 

Golden Autumn Day 

Columbus at Court of Isabella 

Milton Dictating Paradise Lost 

Bismarck 

A Reading from Homer 

The Golden Stairs 

The Hay Wain 

The Wave 

The Fighting Temeraire 

Sir Galahad 

The Immaculate Conception 

The Tapestry Weavers 

The Forge of Vulcan 

Pot of Basil 

Broad Street, New York 

Elements of Newspaper 
News-gathering 
Diffusion of Intelligence 
Mechanical Development 

Moonlight 

FUght of Night 



Correggio 

Rembrandt 

Corot 

Gainsborough 

Troyon 

Delaroche 



Corot 

Rimmer 

van Marcke 

Brozik 

Munkacsy 

Lenbach 

Alma-Tadema 

Burne-Jones 

Constable 

James 

Turner 

Watts 

Murillo 

Velasquez 

Velasquez 

Alexander 

Cooper 

Dielman 

Lunettes, each about 
15 X 27 inches 

De Haas 

Hunt 



Decoration of the School and Home 



The Coming Storm 

Treaty with the Indians 

Prosperity under the Law 

Engineering 

The Road to Concarneau 

Frieze of Prophets 

The Portrait of the Artist's Mother 

George Washington 

Martha Washington 

Bas-Reliefs 
Assyrian Friezes 
Orpheus, Eurydice, and Hermes 
Bacchantes Dancing 
Apobate's Votive Offering for 

Victory in a Chariot Race 
Castor with Horse and Dog 
Antinous 
Eleusinian Relief 
Apollo and Victory 
Monument of Hegeso 
Hydrophoros 
Eagle with Chaplet of 

Leaves 
Madonna and Child 
Madoima and Child 
Homer and the Nymphs 
Frieze of the Parthenon 

Statuary 
The Dying Gaul 
Augustus, from Prima Porta 
Diana of Versailles 



Inness 

MUlet 

Low 

Marsh 

Picknell 

Sargent 

Whistler 

Stuart 

Stuart 



(In the Louvre) 



(Athens) 

(British Museum) 

(Villa Albani, Rome) 

(National Museum, Athens) 

(British Museimi) 

(Athens) 

(Athens) 

Oak 

(From Trajan's Forum) 
Settignano 
Rossellino 



(Louvre) 



126 



Decoration of the School and Home 



Apollo Belvedere 

Faun 

Venus of Melos 

Niobe and Child 

Minerva 

Venus 

Psyche of Naples 

Discobolos 

Laocoon Group 

Nike of Samothrace 

Wrestlers 

Demosthenes 

Sophocles 

Apollo Citharoedus 

Thalia, Muse of Comedy 

Clio, Muse of History 

Polyhymnia 

Augustus Caesar 

Amazon 

Caryatid from the Erectheum 

Venus of Capua 

Faun Playing Scabellum 

Hector and Andromache 

Apollo Playing on Lyre 

Urania 

Joan of Arc 

Washington 

Lincoln 

King Arthur 

Moses 

Lorenzo de Medici 



(Vatican) 
Praxiteles 

(Florence) 

Giustiniani 

Genetrix 

Myron 

(Vatican) 

(Louvre) 

(Florence) 

(Vatican) 

(Rome) 

Scopas 

(Vatican) 

(Vatican) 

(Louvre) 

(Vatican) 

(Rome) 

(Athens) 

(Naples) 

(Florence) 

(Berlin) 

(Berlin) 

Chapel 
Houdon 

Vischer 
Michael Angelo 
Michael Angelo 




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Decoration of the School and Home 129 

Busts and Heads 
Juno Ludovisi (Rome) 

Juno Famese (Naples) 

Augustus Caesar (Vatican) 

Zeus 
Ajax 
Minerva 
Hermes 

Venus of Melos 
Sappho 
Homer 
Diana 
Psyche 
Pericles 

Diana of Versailles 
Apollo Belvedere 
Demosthenes 

Slave Michael Angelo 

Dante 
David 

Washington 

Lincoln and other statesmen 
Longfellow and other poets 
Beethoven and other musicians 

Architecture 
Reliefs from the Alhambra 
Coltunns of the Roman Forvun 

Vases 
Barberini, or Portland Vase 
Homeric Vase from Pompeii 



PART TWO 

CHAPTER XIII 

The Teaching of Home Decoration in the 
Public Schools 

The teaching of art in the public schools has taken a 
decidedly practical turn. The old slogan of "Art for 
Art's Sake" has been abandoned for the saner one of 
"Art for Life's Sake." 

The art teachers believe that the teaching of art 
in the public school must be related as closely as possi- 
ble to the child's needs, and courses have been readjusted 
to meet this idea. 

Problems in color and design related to home fur- 
nishings are being introduced as a part of drawing 
instruction. 

One of the most effective methods of teaching home 
furnishing was established in the Washington AUston 
School by the School Committee of Boston, in 1909. 

The Schoolhouse Commission made some altera- 
tions in the annex of the school and supplied such equip- 
ment as would enable the pupils to furnish a modest 
home, and then to carry on the essential activities of 
housekeeping. 

Such work is usually associated with girls only, but 
in this case it was quite equally divided between boys 
and girls. 







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Decoration of the School and Home 133 

One fundamental aim of the class has been to re- 
establish the necessary balance between academic and 
manual work in the school and to restore to the pupil 
opportunities for applying the theories of the book which 
modem city life has largely removed from the home. 
It has also been the purpose to help the child to discover 
in himself his faculties in general and his special power 
for life work. It has not been the aim to teach trades 
or professions. It has been, however, the purpose 
to acquaint the youth with the fact that there are numer- 
ous and profitable trades and professions, in some one 
of which each will find his largest opportunity. 

Much has been said and written about vocational 
training that shall fit girls for the temporary work which 
they will do from three to ten years before marriage, 
and comparatively little has been said or done to prepare 
girls for the duties of home-making, which, in the con- 
stitution of society, becomes the inevitable vocation 
of nearly all. Furthermore, whatever are the occupa- 
tions of men, the earnings therefrom are almost wholly 
expended on the necessities of housekeeping. 

Back, then, of the diversified vocations of men and 
women whereby money is earned is the one very general 
vocation wherein most of it is spent. The art of living 
is the greatest art, and under present social conditions 
economic expenditure becomes an important subject of 
study. 

In the work laid out in this district it has been the 
purpose to teach the pupils how to conceive and construct 
the material part of the home, and then to study the 
making of the best home life. To this end the School- 



134 Decoration of the School and Home 

house Department remodeled the school annex in so 
far as heavy manual labor was requked. It cut out 
one partition and built in another, put in four windows 
and laid new floors in two rooms, installed a kitchen 
sink, four set tubs, a coal range with hot water, and a gas 
range, and built three closets. It then supplied lumber, 
burlap, hardware, and painters' supplies. The School 
Committee supplied sewing material and the dishes and 
utensils for dining room, kitchen, and laundry. 

The pupils then went to work with the raw materials. 
The boys finished and dressed the floors, painted the 
walls where necessary, and made all the furniture for 
five rooms. The girls sewed the burlap used on the 
walls of two rooms; made the sheets, pillow cases and 
coverings for the beds, drapery curtains for three rooms, 
and a full supply of dishcloths, wipers, and dusters. 
They also hemmed the tablecloths and napkins and 
worked monograms on them. 

The girls were then assigned the duty of performing 
all the activities of housekeeping in a very real, practical 
way. During the year, they cooked, washed, ironed, 
cleaned, dusted, decorated, arranged, and all the while 
did some thinking, for, from the educational standpoint, 
that is the main consideration. 

The following outlines and tables are suggestive of 
the character of the work attempted : — 



SUBJECTS FOR STUDY 

THE KITCHEN— Suggestions for ftimishing : Floor, 
walls, woodwork, furniture, utensils. 



Decoration of the School and Home \^S 

CARE OF RANGE— Daily cleaning; occasional 
cleaning. 

CARE OF SINK— Construction of trap, fixtures. 

CLEANING OF FLOOR— Daily, weekly, 

CARE OF UTENSILS Dishes, garbage pail, 
dishcloths, wipers. 

CARE OF REFRIGERATOR— Cleaning of paint 
and glass, care of household stores. 

THE BEDROOM— Best location, sanitation, ven- 
tilation, furnishing, decoration, dangers from dust, 
airing and making of beds, daily cleaning and weekly 
cleaning. 

SPECLAX TOPICS FOR STUDY 

In like manner the treatment of each room of the 
house has been studied and practiced. Every academic 
study in the regular course has found its field of appli- 
cation. Problems in arithmetic have been based on 
measurements actually made in and around the "House," 
and on the cost of material used in construction. 

An illustrative lesson in geography is that on Indian 
corn, wherein the pupils study its history, its produc- 
tion, transportation and marketing, and its particular 
use as a food. 

The study of the water and drainage systems of the 
"House," of the air currents in stove and furnace (to- 
gether with the making of diagram), and many other such 
problems have given to the study of physics a practical 
value that mere theoretical study does not afford. 

Lists of words derived from industrial lines of work 
have been sent to the class rooms for spelling exercises. 



136 Decoration of the School and Home 

Finally, it was decided to divide the subjects of this 
class into three divisions — the economic, aesthetic, 
and ethical sides of home-making. The pupils then 
talked and wrote on and illustrated in some way each 
of these divisions. Before written work in any of these 
departments was done it was preceded by enjoyable 
instruction, which very frequently took the form of 
discussion. 

When the pupils began to write this method was 
adopted : Each pupil was to tell, first, of something most 
beautiful to him in a real home; second, of some ideal 
beauty he would like to attain; third, of the exact way 
in which he did certain home duties or had accomplished 
special work in the apartment ; and, fourth, of the origin 
and growth of this new work in the school. The 
list of theme subjects used by the children illustrates 
these divisions of thoughts. It has been pleasing to 
find that the imagination has been sufficiently awakened 
to lead even into the realms of story telling and 
poetry. 
On the economic side, such titles as these : — 

a. When One Enjoys Dish Washing. 

b. One Day's Housekeeping. 

c. An Economical Summer Home. 

d. One Day's Happy Work from Morning to Night. 
On the aesthetic and imaginative side these : — 

a. A Room I Love. 

b. What a Window Adds to a Home. 

c. Encouragement of the Fine Arts in a Well-to-do 

Home. 

d. Grandma's Kitchen. 




An attractive corner in the Washington Allston School Home. 
PLATE XL VI I. 



Decoration of the School and Home 139 

On the ethical side these: — 

a. The Center of Love. 

b. Love and Character in the Home. 

c. Foundations of a Home. 

d. Problem of Home in the Present Century. 

To cover these requirements each pupil wrote from 
four to seven themes. The titles cover quite a wide 
range, and in the main were original with the children. 

That the manual side of home-making has furnished 
the keenest incentive for expression cannot be doubted. 
The opening of new windows to sunshine, air, and 
view; the study of color effect in decoration; the de- 
signing of furniture; the emphasis placed upon sim- 
plicity and regard for space — these all have been con- 
stant themes of conversation both in and out of school, 
for the children's homes have felt the reaction upon 
them. Nor does it seem extravagant to say that these 
simple elementary lessons must make an enduring 
impression upon the future lives of the children. — Extract 
from Annual Report of Superintendent Stratton D. Brooks, 
Boston Public Schools, 1910. 



The following composition by a pupil of the school 
will serve to show the interest and ideas that this ex- 
periment awakened. 

"OUR NEW EXPERIMENT" 
"Mr. Crawford, our principal, was chosen by the 
School Committee to be one of the party of teachers who 
went abroad to find out what was being done in the form 
of manual training in the foreign schools. In a few 
places he found that the children were being better fitted 



140 Decoration of the School and Home 

to go out in the world and to make a home for them- 
selves than here, so when he arrived home again he 
decided to try a new experiment on his own school, and 
that is the way the work on the Ideal Home originated. 

"A great deal of work had to be done in order to 
change these plain schoolrooms into a pretty apartment. 
All this time, whUe we waited, we had been receiving 
instructions from the teachers. Mr. Crawford came in 
a few times and talked to us in a general way about 
the home. Miss Nichols, our cooking teacher, taught 
us how to take care of the house and launder the linen. 

"Miss Norton showed us how to add little touches 
to make the home more charming in the way of em- 
broidering table and bed linen. Miss Swett showed 
us the artistic and bad ways of furnishing the house. 
Miss Kelley endeavored to apply our ideas to com- 
position work, and Mr. Nash gave us problems that made 
me dizzy for reckoning up the cost of lumber and so 
forth." 

Here are some ideas gleaned from compositions 
which show how seriously these pupils "play house." 
"A house is easy to get, but a home requires careful 
consideration;" "The warm rays of the sun and love 
combined in a household makes the home very happy;" 
"There is no reason why girls from eight to eighteen 
years of age should not learn and practice the whole 
round of housekeeping, from the beating of an egg to 
the laying of a carpet;" "Housekeeping is an exact 
science, and works like the multiplication table, if one 
only has learned it;" "A girl should be taught to take 
pride in keeping her room neat, or in dusting every 




The dining room in the Washington Allston School Home. 
PLATE XLVra. 



Decorati on of the School and Home 143 

day;" "Houskeeping does not only mean keeping 
things clean and having plenty to eat, it goes from the 
outside of the house to the inside of the traveling bags 
of those who leave it;" "Good manners cost nothing 
in a home, good taste is saving, and good housekeeping 
makes money." 

HOW THE DRAWING WAS RELATED TO THE 
IDEAL HOME EXPERIMENT 

"The children assemble in the large living room and 
we talk of the 'School Home' and its purpose; then 
the conversation proceeds toward the selection of our 
own home, the kind we would like and the kind we are 
forced to content ourselves with, and which must have 
three essentials: the house must be suitable for the 
lot; it must be in keeping with the neighborhood, and 
the cost must not reach beyond a certain limit; also 
it must be built on a convenient and economical plan; 
then the exposure, all the sun possible, — foundations, 
cellar room, — plenty of windows, grouping of windows 
in some rooms if possible; inside and outside finish, — 
spacing in rooms with a view to the accommodation of 
fumitiu-e, some of which may be built in, best arrange- 
ment of furniture (and how to dispose of some we may 
have on hand that we would like to part with but cannot 
afford to), — shelf or shelves in rooms which help the 
decorative possibilities. The color schemes, wall paper, 
wood staining, the overcrowding of mantels and shelves, 
also of pictures that have no redeeming merit, the hang- 
ing of pictm-es, calling their attention to the fact that 
certain pictures fit in some spaces and not in others; 



l^-t Decoration of the School and Home 



Strong emphasis placed on the right combination of 
colors, those suitable to sunny and those to colder rooms. 
We had lately a full house cleaning; the girls of course 
did their part, and then I had some of the boys help 
with picture hanging and redisposal of shelf objects. 
We needed a bookcase for the living room; the boys 
made the plan, designed it for the space, and one boy 
wished to make it alone. He took entire charge of it, 
and it is very satisfactory. Attention is called also to 
window draperies, simple with straight lines, and the 
great necessity for having 'breathing space' in the 
rooms by orderly placing of simple furniture, leaving 
plenty of walking space; good color, sunlight, and 
fresh air among the indispensable things of a home. 
Last fall we had an interesting experiment in domestic 
art. The girls in the School Home 'put up,' in house- 
keeping parlance, over a hundred jars of preserves, 
jams, jelHes, marmalades, pickles, tomatoes, etc. You 
can imagine the beautiful coloring in that number of 
glass jars of various sizes, filled to the brim, all nicely 
labeled. Then they were arranged by a number of the 
girls on several tables of different sizes, properly placed, 
both jars and tables, in the living room, and with great 
attention paid to the color scheme, analogous and other- 
wise. Such a splendid scale of yellow-browns and 
brown-yellows, red-oranges and orange-reds, etc., etc., 
can hardly be imagined, and they could not have had 
a more harmonious setting than the brownish tones of 
the room, which was flooded with sunlight and inci- 
dentally the colors repeating themselves in the out-of- 
door coloring seen from the windows. I think Bakst 



Decoration of the School and Home 145 

even could have gained inspiration from it. It was such 
a splendid showing both industrially and 'colorfully' 
that we had every class in our school, little and big, file 
into the room to see it, and we gave them a ten-minute 
art talk, both asking and answering questions. They 
had been in the throes of crayon scales and water color 
pictures, and were very much alive in their appreciation. 
I have written more fully about this particular perform- 
ance because I thought then and still think it the best 
color lesson we ever had, and a fine correlation of in- 
dustry and art. It was of both practical and esthetic 
value to even the youngest, for they realized that this 
work, producing such satisfying results for mental and 
physical needs, must surely be of exceeding value." — 
Alice A. Swett. 

EXPERIMENT IN THE LYMAN DISTRICT 

In a suite of rooms at 18 Chelsea Street, East Boston, 
which are hired for the purpose, a household department 
has been established for the Lyman District. 

The work of this class should go a long way toward 
proving the efficacy or failure of the domestic arts as a 
branch of training in the elementary schools. 

This department of home-making has three primary 
objectives. It strives to impart a more definite knowl- 
edge and a larger view of home-making than can be 
obtained from the brief period spent in the ordinary 
school kitchens. By the increase of time allowed this 
class for the domestic arts it is intended that habits of 
work under natural home conditions shall be acquired. 



146 Decoration of the School and Home 

As its third objective, it has the purpose to aid girl grad- 
uates of the school in their choice of a vocation through 
the discovery of their aptitudes. 

Sufficient practice in the various lines of home work 
is given to enable the pupil to form the habit of appli- 
cation and to acquire accuracy, self-confidence, and the 
satisfaction that comes with the consciousness of achieve- 
ment of a most tangible sort. 

The course of study is divided into two parts — house- 
hold work and general sewing and dressmaking. Under 
the first heading are taught sweeping, dusting, washing 
windows, washing paint, scrubbing floors, caring for 
fires, cleaning stoves, cleaning steel, brass, nickel, and 
silver, painting walls and woodwork, starching clothes, 
care and handling of dishes, and the manifold operations 
that bring skill in cookery. Under general sewing and 
dressmaking are taught the taking of measurements, 
adjustment of patterns, use and adjustment of sewing 
machine, basting, sewing, patching, darning, and mend- 
ing, in so far as such work is necessary in making the 
plain necessities of the home. 

The general training in an apartment, where home- 
like conditions prevail to so much greater extent than is 
possible in school kitchens, gives at once an industrial 
rather than a school flavor to the work. More depart- 
ments of work are taught, as kitchen work in a kitchen, 
dining room work in a dining room, and bedroom work 
in a bedroom, so that the kinds of work are given that 
pertain to every department of the household, and it 
is intended that the girls shall become able to take charge 
of such work for pay when necessary. There is also 




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Decoration of the School and Home 149 

laundry work, an industry in itself, that requires skill 
and commands good wages. 

The general purpose of the work is to give the pupils a 
better appreciation of home tasks by a system of work 
that has a definite bearing upon the home life, and at the 
same time to furnish instruction that will have a direct 
bearing on several vocations that girls may follow upon 
leaving school. They are taught that art enters into 
every phase of home making. 

The furnishings of this suite were extremely simple, 
chosen with due regard to the station in life which these 
girls represent. 

The selections of furniture, wall papers, floor cover- 
ings, and draperies were made with the idea of illus- 
trating that good taste may be exercised in purchasing 
even the cheapest furnishings, and the result proved the 
theory. The lessons on color and design in home fur- 
nishing in the class room indicated that the furnished 
suite had exercised a beneficial effect upon the pupils 
and was a valuable object lesson. 

Further interest in this subject was aroused in both 
experimental centers by the Art Director's talks on 
color and design, illustrated with samples of wall paper, 
rugs, and draperies. 

This method of showing the application of book 
theories to actual living has passed the experimental stage 
and is now a permanent part of the education in this city. 

At the present time, there are four such centers and 
the work will undoubtedly be extended to those districts 
where there is the greatest need of teaching "The art of 
correct living." 



150 Decoration of the School and Home 

Probably the nearest approach to the furnishing of a 
real suite of rooms as explained in the experiments 
described would be a room built on the school premises and 
constructed by the boys in the manual training classes 
under the supervision of the manual training teacher. 

The interior of this room might be refurnished each 
year to represent a different room in a home. 

It is believed that the extra time and expense for the 
carrying out of such an experiment vi^ould be justified 
by the excellent opportunities afforded the pupils for 
putting into practice the principles taught in the class 
rooms and shop. 

Furthermore, it would stimulate the boys' observa- 
tion of the various styles of home architecture, and 
include a study of the most practical forms of building 
construction, sanitation and ventilation of buildings. 

The working out of the problems in color for the walls 
of exterior and interior, floor and ceiling, and the making 
of designs for rugs, curtains, draperies, couch and table 
covers, and applying them to the material, would present 
an excellent opportitnity for the Art Teacher to relate 
the art instruction of the class room more closely to life. 

THE MINIATURE HOUSE 

The miniature or toy house, as it is sometimes called, 
has proven a successful method of teaching home fur- 
nishing on a small scale and is particularly well adapted 
to the lower and intermediate elementary grades. 

Through a desire to relate the boys' lessons in weaving 
in a sixth grade in Boston to some practical end, a minia- 
ture house was constructed in the manual training shop. 




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Decoration of the School and Home 153 

The uses of wall and floor coverings were first con- 
sidered. The pupils discussed the relative value of 
carpets and rugs for floor coverings and decided that 
the latter were more sanitary. Designs were then 
made on paper to harmonize with the size, shape, and 
color scheme of each room. These were woven on 
the looms and after discussing the results, the best 
examples were selected to adorn the different rooms in 
the house. 

The furniture and other furnishings were designed 
and constructed by the boys after careful consideration 
of utility and beauty. The final result was sane and 
restful and it is safe to say that the foundation of many 
a future tasteful home was laid through that sixth grade 
experiment. 

An art teacher describes, in an interesting way, a 
similar experiment as follows : — 

" Ever since actual labeled Manual Training has been 
in our schools we have been struggling for some sort 
of a habitation for our furniture, raffia rugs, canvas mats, 
and curtains, to say nothing of the wall paper and lino- 
leum designed and painted in the drawing department. 
We tried playhouses made of strong manila paper over 
a wooden frame to be made by the teacher before the 
class, assisted as much as possible by the children. 
We who have taught in the grades did not favor this 
plan, and the paper warped, became ugly, and quite 
vmsatisfactory. 

"It was finally decided to try wooden boxes, which 
were obtained and handed over to the boys in manual 
training for remodeling. 



154 Decoration of the School and Home 

" Meanwhile the children were building similar houses 
at home. Many a big brother and father lent a hand, 
and thus the Saturdays at home were made jojrful, for 
nothing is better to fall back on any holiday than a box 
playhouse. 

"For the primary children, the manual training de- 
partment provided furniture made of stiff manila paper. 
The art department painted the kitchen furniture pine 
color, the dining room Flemish oak, the living room 
furniture mahogany or maple or black walnut, as the 
taste of the class decreed. The bedrooms were left 
cream white. In many rooms the painting was con- 
sidered as busy work or a reward of merit for a perfect 
number or spelling paper. The work was so well done 
that when I first saw it in a room where the children 
came from wealthy homes I thought, ' Oh, dear ! James 
Street has spoiled the whole thing by letting the chil- 
dren buy the furniture.' It looked like real wood. 

"The small people painted the outside of the house 
'in really truly house paint,' mixing the soft colors 
from red, yellow, blue, and white. They also stained 
the floors, wainscotings, and window casings. The 
wainscotings were only portions of the walls left below 
the paper, the window casings were added, the children 
measiu-ing and planning window openings of the desired 
size. 

"After this came the designing and painting of lino- 
leum, and tile paper for the kitchen. We all decided 
the kitchen must be the first room furnished, for while 
people could sleep on the floor if necessary, they must 
be able to prepare food at the outset. Most of oiu: 



Decoration of the School and Home 155 

kitchens were a sunny yellow brown, with pine furni- 
ture. 'Tile paper is expensive, but will wash,' so all 
the kitchens were in that design, but as different as the 
people guiding the youngsters. 

"The dining rooms had 'two tone' papers. One 
woman said, * Such stylish paper, if you please ! ' 

"The bedrooms varied, — blue, pink, pale green, yel- 
low, — but all dainty and sweet, and the bedding — such 
home work is a joy forever! One little boy who had 
just learned the blanket stitch made a white cheese- 
cloth 'comfortable' with blanket stitch and bows in 
pink, 'all alone.' 

"The living rooms were, in general, green, cushions 
were made to match the walls, and the rug was often 
natural raffia with green stripes combined with dull 
red-orange or black. The curtain rods were 'sucker 
sticks' mainly, while a clay ball finished the ends. 
The portieres were usually canvas but an occasional 
'whip lash' hanging made of clay beads painted in 
Indian style, strung between pieces of 'soda water 
straws,' varied the monotony. 

"The manual training department made rugs of 
raffia, mats and bureau and table covers of canvas, 
and curtains of coarse cheese cloth. These details were 
supervised, sometimes designed, and always discussed 
from the point of view of good taste in the art depart- 
ment. The results were far reaching. One of the 
devoted mothers said, 'Oh, everything must match 
these days! When Alice wears a red dress she must 
have a red hair ribbon and a red pencil even, and when 
a blue one the ribbon and pencil must be blue.' 'Cer- 



156 Decoration of the School and Home 

tainly,' another said, 'and a handkerchief border to 
match; but isn't it lovely! How I wish I might have 
had such training.' 

"Many classes had the fun of moving in with a papa 
and mamma doll and no end of children for whom a 
carefully 'weeded' number of toy articles were al- 
lowed to enter this precious place. Toy plants in jars, 
a tiny alarm clock for the bedroom, a red lamp for the red 
room, a suit case for the attic (all made at home from 
school patterns) and of course the necessary telephone 
had to come, and we could not exclude dogs, chickens, 
and baby carriages from the dooryard. 

" One class put the house in the sand table and made 
a yard, flower beds, pathways, ponds, trees, and a gen- 
erally clever place, 'all their own way.' 

"This whole work has been kept in excellent shape, 
wise teachers choosing care takers daily or weekly, 
to keep floors and furniture clean and sweet. 

"What could not be accomplished for 'their little 
good' in the three R's was often made up in this work 
by developing the 'three H's, the hand, the head, and 
the heart.'" — Miss Katherine G. Sanders. 

APPLICATION OF COLOR TO PRINTED 
OUTLINES OF ROOM INTERIORS 

In schools where it has been impracticable to teach 
Home Decoration by the methods already described, 
the subject has been presented in an interesting manner 
that has proved to be of educational value as a training 
in the appreciation of harmonious color and design. 




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Decoration of the School and Home 150 

The sixth, seventh, and eighth grades are furnished 
with printed outlines of different views of room interiors 
to which color schemes are appUed with water colors, 
after the pupils have matched the colors of woods treated 
in different stains, samples of wall paper, draperies, and 
floor coverings. The examples of wood staining are 
procured from the manual training teacher, and samples 
of wall paper, carpeting, and draperies are obtained from 
the department stores. 

Further considerations, which precede the application 
of color to the outline, consist in having each pupU first 
assume the lighting of the room, and then select a color 
for the general scheme which will be either warm or 
cool according to conditions. It is better that the pupil 
use one of the colors of the wall paper samples rather 
than apply an imaginary color. 

The wall color may be made the keynote of a small 
color scale and the colors of the woodwork, draperies, 
rug, and other furnishings established in relation to it. 
With this color scale as a guide, the pupil is then prepared 
to apply washes of color to the printed outline of 
the room. 

Considerations of good design in all home furnishings 
should accompany this study of color. Catalogues 
may be easily procured and the illustrations cut out and 
compared and the best examples mounted. 

In some cases, teachers have combined this study of 
form and color by first making a drawing of the room 
interior and coloring the wall and floor spaces and then 
arranging and pasting the pictvires of furniture and 
other furnishings thereon. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Home Furnishing 

WALL AND FLOORS 

The wall and floor coverings should make harmonious 
and restful backgrounds for the furniture, pictures, and 
bric-a-brac in the room. 

Designs which are made up of conspicuous units 
or colors that are too intense are always irritating and 
can never be induced to stay back in their respective 
places. 

The truth of this statement may be made very 
apparent by selecting wall papers having units of vary- 
ing degrees of contrast as in plates LII and LIIL 

It will be observed that pictures show to better ad- 
vantage on the wall papers where there is a slight con- 
trast between the design and the background, as in 
fig. I, plates LII and LIII. 

The revolt against over-decorated papers — such as fig. 
II, plates LII and LIII — brought in these quiet patterns 
as well as plain papers, burlap, and the painted wall. 

The ingrain and oatmeal papers are the most satis- 
factory of medium priced wall papers and cost from 
fifteen to forty cents a roll. The cheapest papers are 
never economical, though last year's patterns are apt 
to be much cheaper than the latest designs and quite 
as attractive. The various textile fabrics used for wall 
hangings are much more expensive than paper in first 











. ■- rii:i -^ 



a 

a 

< 



u< 





H 



Decoration of the School and Home 163 

cost, but much more desirable. Burlap fades very 
readily, but may be recolored on the wall with paint 
or a dye made for the purpose. Neither biurlap, grass 
cloth, canvas, buckram, nor cotton tapestries can be said 
to be sanitary. 

Probably the best wall finish is paint, as it is sani- 
tary, wears well, and may be easily toned to harmonize 
with rugs and furniture. Cold water paints are pref- 
erable to oils, are about one third of the cost, and give 
the walls a velvety finish far more pleasing to the eye 
than the gloss produced by oil paints. However, 
this may be overcome if the paint is stippled. Cold water 
paints must not be confused with cheap calcimines 
mixed with glue which cannot be washed and are never 
wholly satisfactory. 

Carpets and rugs having conventional designs of 
closely related tones and subdued colors make the most 
restful coverings for the floors. A rug or carpet spotted 
over with a pattern of naturalistic roses, fig. II, plate 
LIV, is altogether too conspicuous for a background. 

Design has little excuse for being unrelated to the 
use and structure of the object it decorates. These 
conditions demand that a rug be treated in a fiat con- 
ventional pattern of closely related tones, fig. I, plate LIV. 

This all-over rug pattern is a good example of tone 
harmony, although, owing to the bilateral units of the 
pattern which lead the eye in one direction, it is not as 
suitable for a floor covering as a radial pattern. 

The oriental designer is well aware of this and 
generally uses the fiat radial units. The effectiveness 
of the rugs, plate LV, is largely due to the subordina- 



164 Decoration of the School and Home 

tion of units of the pattern and the emphasis of the 
beautiful proportions of the rugs by the borders. 

The prevalent taste for bare floors is to be commended 
not only on the grounds of health and beauty, but also 
upon that of economy both m money cost and in care. 

The day of tacked-down carpets has about gone by, 
except in old houses when the condition of the floors 
wiU not permit them to be exposed. Even when carpet- 
ing is bought by the yard it is now usually made up 
into rug form with a border. 

Turkish rugs in the long run are undoubtedly the 
least expensive, though good body Brussels, which may 
be had for a dollar and a quarter to a dollar and sixty- 
five cents per yard, is very satisfactory. Tapestry, being 
only forty cents to a dollar per yard, is one of the most 
common carpets in use, though its comparatively poor 
wearing qualities and inferior designs make it unde- 
sirable. Rag carpeting, in good designs a yard wide, 
may be had for twenty-five cents to a dollar or more 
a yard from the stores or may be woven to order without 
additional cost; rugs of this material are now much in 
vogue. Mattings make attractive floor coverings, but 
they do not withstand much hard usage. Recent revival 
of the hooked rug industry in the mountains of New 
England has made it possible to obtain rugs of purely 
American design and hand work which are most artistic. 




Fig. I. The closely related tones of this pattern are restful. 




Fig. II. The strong contrast of tones and colors creates a spotty effect that is 
undesirable in floor coverings. 

PLATE LIV. 




Fig. I. Saraband Rug. 




Fig. n. Bokhara Rug. 
PLATE LV. 



CHAPTER XV 

Color and its Application to Interior 
Decoration 

The art of selecting and combining colors harmoni- 
ously comes natural to some people but all may acquire 
a considerable amount of good taste through study of 
color in nature and in the fine and industrial arts. 

Dame Nature will reveal the underlying principles 
which enter into her wonderful harmonies to those who 
read her book studiously. Artists and designers have 
always turned to her for the knowledge which guides 
them in their work. 

The coloring of natural objects is either warm, as in 
flowers of red, orange, or yellow color, or cool, as in the 
blue and purple flowers; or may consist of a mixture 
of both warm and cool as in the plumage of the blue- 
bird. Nature is ever seeking to strike a balance between 
these two qualities of color. In the landscape, there is a 
greater proportion of cool colors than warm, owing to the 
fact that a large amount of the former is required to 
balance a small amount of the latter, for the red, orange, 
and yellow are more active than blue and violet. This 
proportion of color is a wise provision, for the cool colors 
are more restful to the eye. 

Nature prefers to paint her large areas in the softer 
intensities of color and reserves the brightest touches 
for small accents in birds and flowers, for it takes a 



168 Decoration of the School and Home 

big field of quiet color to offset and hold down a little 
that is clear and bright. She avoids sharp contrasts 
of color, but prefers to lead the eye gently from one 
color to the other through gradation, as in the sunset 
sky in the frontispiece, where green above changes 
into yellow, the yellow into orange at the horizon; or 
in the autumn colored maple leaf, in which the different 
hues grade softly into one another. This gradual blend- 
ing of one color into another or one variety of one color 
into another variety of the same color is exemplified 
in the gradual transition between the oranges and purples 
in plate LVI. 

The simplest harmony of color in nature is a change 
of quality from pure spectrum colors to their tints and 
shades. The greater the change toward light or dark, 
the more sure we may be of obtaining harmony, as a 
color scheme of very pale tints or very dark shades is 
almost sure to be good, even if quite varied. In fact, 
contrast in tone which is change in quality, will har- 
monize any two colors, as pale blue and dark green, 
or pale green and dark blue. Still another change in 
quality which underlies beautiful color combinations in 
nature and the arts consists of colors that are neu- 
tralized by mixtures of other colors : as for instance, if, 
instead of using a pure red, pure yellow, and pure blue, 
we use a red toned down by an admixture of a little 
yellow and blue, a yellow toned in the same way with 
red or blue, and a blue that has in it something of red 
and yellow, the colors will still be red, yellow, and blue ; 
but in approaching each other will become more related 
and so far more harmonious. 



Decoration of the School and Home 169 

The harmony that results from a dominant hue con- 
sists of a general tone of color connecting or harmonizing 
other colors. The effect of this may be observed in a 
spray of young leaves in spring when many hues of 
green and yellow will be found connected and har- 
monized by the red of the stem, which color runs through 
it all, carrying the red into the greens and yellows. 

Age has given this quality to many old paintings by 
darkening and mellowing the paints and varnishes 
which have given them the added charm of the dominant 
hue. 

The harmony of dominant hue is observed in the 
color schemes for interior decoration when each color 
takes something of the other into it, as in plate LVI, 
where the yellow is toned with orange, the orange with 
yellow, and the purple with orange and yellow. In this 
way even reds and blues may be closely related, each 
taking on a purplish tinge with a trace of the other in it. 
This is a safe general method, and goes farther than 
any other, perhaps, to hold things together. " That sense 
of 'oneness,' of belonging together, we must have, 
or we have failed in the charm and peacefulness — the 
rightness of our surroundings." 

There is that other possibility of harmony, wherein 
zest lies, which is apt to appear into even closely thought- 
out harmonies of related color. And that is the added 
charm that contrast of color gives, while yet the harmony 
is preserved. The beauty of many color harmonies in 
nature is enhanced by touches of black and white, as 
in the plumage of the oriole, woodpecker, hawk, and 
owl, while touches of black or white may serve the same 



170 Decoration of the School and Home 

purpose in the interior. There is always the crispness 
that comes from just the "■telling touch" of a con- 
trasting color, as in the use of purple in plate LVI and the 
yellow tones in plate LVII. The dominating influence 
of one color with touches of contrast that do not reach 
disturbance will produce the most pleasing color harmony. 

The combination of yellow and orange tones in plate 
LVI creates a feeling of warmth and hospitality which is 
so desirable in the living room. 

Observe how the designer of this interior selected and 
disposed of colors to produce unity, balance, and harmony. 

The color scheme is based upon yellow and orange. 
The yellow above the wainscoting is repeated in the 
lower part of the room in slightly warmer tones in the 
upholstering, for the sake of balance, and forms an 
intermediate tone between the two wall colors. 

The small masses of complementary purple in rugs 
and frieze decoration were introduced to give contrast 
and thereby heighten the luminous effect in the room. 
The purple is harmoniously related to the orange and 
yellow, through selecting colors for draperies, furniture, 
and woodwork which are composed of a mixture of 
orange and purple. Other color schemes for rooms 
requiring warm colors may be composed of yellow or 
warm green tones with small touches of purple and 
purple red. 

An opposite effect to that of the living room is pro- 
duced in the dining room, plate LVII, through making 
blue the dominant note in the color scheme. The tones 
of this color in wall and rug absorb the light and produce 
a feeling of coolness. Such a scheme needs to be 



Decoration of the School and Home 17.S 

warmed up somewhat, even when applied to a sunny 
room. This has been accomplished by treating the 
ceiling, floor, fireplace, and door in warm colors. Both 
the cool and warm colors of the room have been repeated 
in the stain and upholstering of the furniture. 

Combinations of cool grays and greens predomi- 
nating with small amounts of contrasting colors are 
also suitable for sunny rooms. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR RECONCILING INHARMO- 
NIOUS DIFFERENCES OF COLOR 

People who rent homes frequently find that the 
walls have been papered by a landlord having more 
means than taste. The colors are loud and the designs 
consist of large spotty units. 

Some relief in this case may be secured through 
the use of plain rugs and draperies in harmony with 
the general color effect of the wall paper. Draperies 
may be easily dyed if they are not in harmony with the 
paper. The pictures should be arranged so that as 
many as possible of the objectionable units will be 
covered. 

When the wall paper has a pattern treated in 
tones of two colors care should be taken to repeat the 
same hues in other parts of the room. 

The most difficult treatments of woodwork to recon- 
cile are that stained in a crude cherry color and that 
which is painted and grained to imitate oak. Diligent 
application of paint remover and restaining or repaint- 
ing is the best way to overcome such difficulties. 



174 Decoration of the School and Home 

When this is impossible, such tones of color should 
be used on the wall as will soften rather than emphasize 
the crudity of the woodwork. 

This may be accomplished through use of gray tones 
of red and yellow. The unpleasant efifect of a bright blue 
or green tiling about a gas-grate fireplace may be made 
less noticeable if its color is repeated in a softer tone 
on the wall or in the floor covering. Thus may any 
crude color which is a fixture in he room, be made less 
conspicuous through relating it to the general color 
scheme. 







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PLATE LVin. 



CHAPTER XVI 

Furniture 



The furniture for the home should meet all the 
requirements of utility, durability, and beauty. It should 
be beautiful within the limitations which its use imposes 
and be so constructed that it serves its purpose 
adequately. 

All the elements of beauty observed in the colonial 
writing desk, plate LVIII, appear to be lacking in the 
example of golden oak, plate LIX. Its appearance is 
cheap and unattractive. The legs are much too small, 
repose has been sacrificed through use of undulating 
curves at the top and front of the object. The stuck- 
on machine carving detracts and is in bad taste. 



178 



Decoration of the School and Home 




PLATE LIX. 



Ornament should be used sparingly and is only 
legitimate when related to structure. Simplicity, the 
first essential of beauty in a piece of furniture, is at 
once apparent in the colonial desk. Strength and 
repose are obtained through preserving the horizontal 
and vertical lines in the structure, and the wonderfully 
fine sweep of line at the base softens the severity of the 
straight elements. The color of the wood is rich and 
the proportions throughout are refined. 

It is possible nowadays to buy a well designed piece 
of furniture for a moderate price, such as the illustration 



Decoration of the School and Home 



179 




PLATE LX. 



of this mission sideboard, fig. a, plate LX. Its straight 
lines will contrast admirably with the curved surfaces 
of china and silver placed upon it. 

In contrast the flamboyant ornament on the golden 
oak sideboard, fig. b, plate LX, is vulgar and offensive. 
This excess of ornament is meaningless, because it 
bears no relation to the structure and will hold quan- 
tities of dust. 

The beautiful sideboard design, fig. b, plate LXIII, 
made famous by Sheraton, is of mahogany inlaid with 
lines of hoUjrwood. Its lasting beauty proves that 
masterpieces may be produced in furniture as well as 
in other kinds of creative work. The glaring ugliness 
of the golden-oak sideboard, fig. a, plate LXIII, is at 
once apparent. Such machine-made wares will soon 



180 



Decoration of the School and Home 




PLATE LXI. 



become rare if once a little thought is expended in 
making selection. 

William Morris never intended that his chair should 
be carved. Therefore, such a monstrosity as plate 
LXI is a counterfeit and debasement. Yet it cost 
more than once again as much as the illustration, fig. c, 
plate LXII, which was modeled after the design of the 
famous English craftsman. 

Plush-covered chairs like fig. b, plate LXII, are neither 
comfortable, sanitary, nor beautiful. They are veri- 
table dust catchers and retain a great many dangerous 
germs. The "spindle" work and other "gimcrack" 
ornament which manufacturers put on chairs like fig. a, 
plate LXII, is as meaningless as it is ugly. The 
spindles break easily, the chair is disfigured and is 



Decoration of the School and Home 



181 




PLATE LXII. 



unsafe, yet it costs three times as much as the Windsor 
chair, fig. d, plate LXII. 




PLATE LXIII. 



Decoration of the School and Home 



183 




PLATE LXIV. 



There is an effect of liixurious comfort in the couch, 
fig. b, plate LXIV, although it is very simple in design. 
This is due to its generous proportions, which are unusual 
and are certainly to be commended. In large rooms, 
especially, such pieces are most appropriate and dignified. 



184 



Decoration of the School and Home 




PLATE LXV. 



In contrast, the absurdity of the unfortunate creation 
illustrated in couch a, plate LXIV, is at once evident. It 
conveys no sense of comfort, and it is ugly in design 
throughout. Such loud patterns in upholstery should be 
avoided for they will cheapen the appearance of any room. 

One of the chief objections to the couch, fig. a, plate 
LXV, is the utter lack of adaptability to any practical 
use. In looking at it one cannot escape the conviction 
that it is designed to pitch the would-be occupant on the 



Decoration of the School and Home 



185 




PLATE LXVI. 



floor. It suggests exactly the opposite of comfort. The 
admirably designed German couch, fig. b, plate LXV, is 
most attractive. The wooden frame should be stained to 
harmonize with the upholstering, and both should be done 
in accordance with the prevailing colors of the room. 

These hall racks are inexpensive and practical. They 
are admirably adapted to serve the purpose for which 
they were made. The designs owe their attractiveness 



186 



Decoration of the School and Home 




PLATE LXVU. 



to simplicity, pleasing proportions, and well related spaces. 
It is difficult to understand why such ugly designs 
as figs, c and d, plate LXVII, are produced, yet they are 
common enough in the shops. Both are altogether 
clumsy in effect and much time and material have been 
wasted in their construction. This kind of furniture 
cannot last; it is an offense to the eye and it is a waste 
of money to purchase it. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Table Lamps 

Within the last ten years there has been a great 
improvement in the design of Hghting fixtures. 

The lamps with round bowls and shades decorated 
with gaudily painted flowers are rapidly disappearing, 
and designs of beautiful form and color, as illustrated 
in figs, a and c, plate LXVIII, are taking their places. 

Illustrations b and d, plate LXVIII, are in bad taste. 
They are neither useful nor ornamental in any way. 
The shades which have required somebody's valuable 
time to make, seem to be more appropriate for dress 
trimming than a lamp. Being made of silk they would 
have no lasting value when exposed to the heat of 
the chimney, and the whole arrangement is a dust 
catcher. 

A jardiniere of dull green pottery forms the base of 
the lamp shown in fig. a. A brass font holds the oil, and 
a good burner is fitted on the jar. The wide-spreading 
Japanese shade sends a splendid glow of light over the 
table, and altogether the combination of plain materials 
shows remarkably good results for a comparatively 
small outlay of money. 

The lamp illustrated in fig. c is admirably adapted 
to its purpose. Usefulness is shown in every detail 
of its construction, while the color and design are 
beautiful. 




PLATE LXVm. 



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Fig. a. 




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PLATE LXIX. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Draperies and Curtains 

In purchasing door hangings, as well as in other 
furnishings of the home, three good principles should 
be considered. For the benefit and health of the family, 
these three considerations are practical usefulness, 
artistic efifect, and hygienic value. 

The old-fashioned woven coverlet in dark blue and 
ivory white, figure a, combines all these characteristics. 
It is good in design and color. It is hygienic in that it 
will stand being washed over and over again. 



190 



Decoration of the School and Home 




PLATE LXX. 



The curtain composed of bamboo strips and colored 
beads in fig. a, plate LXIX, is both impractical and in- 
artistic in design. It does not screen the door completely, 
nor may it be drawn aside, as it is hung on the pole in a 
stationary manner. In passing through such a cur- 
tained door, one must hold the strands aside, and it is 
a lucky person who escapes having hair or clothing 
disarranged by catching them on the sharp edges of 
the beads. The strands soon become broken and 
unsightly gaps appear. The oblique lines of the ugly 
pattern make it irritating and out of harmony with 
the structure of the doorway. 



Decoration of the School and Home 



101 




PLATE LXXI. 



The successful treatment of the double door illus- 
trated in fig. c, plate LXX, consists of Delft blue muslin; 
the border set on is a strip of white muslin. The effect 
is harmonious and restful. The border serves to repeat 
the vertical and horizontal lines of the door and forms 
pleasing shaped panels. 

The much betrimmed velours curtains in fig. e, plate 
LXXn, combine all the elements of bad taste. They 
represent a poor imitation of oriental drapery, obstruct 
the doorway, are heavy in effect, and absorb dust. The 
lines of the drapery have nothing in common with the 
doorway and are extremely ungraceful. 




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PLATE LXXII. 



Decoration of the School and Home 193 

Where two rooms communicate in such a way as 
to make it desirable to let light through from one to 
the other, a dainty artistic curtain for the doorway is 
desirable. Such a one is illustrated in fig. d, plate 
LXXI. It is made of ecru cotton canvas stenciled, 
both sides alike, in a conventional design. In marked 
contrast is the distracting and dazzling treatment of the 
doorway illustrated in fig. f, plate LXXII, with its dan- 
gling cords, tassels, and grill-work. Such an apology 
for a curtain has no reason for being. 

Economy in furnishing implies little use of expensive 
hangings of silk, velvet, and heavy wool fabrics. They 
gather an incredible quantity of dust and dirt; they 
all fade more or less, and are often attacked by 
moths. 

When draperies are necessary a choice may be made 
among infinite varieties of cotton materials. Chintz 
at forty-five cents a yard, denim at twenty-five cents 
or less, and cretonne from twelve and a half cents 
upwards are all suitable for hangings, and when they 
have become soiled or faded may be utilized in various 
other ways. At windows where it is desired only to 
diffuse the light nothing is better than sheer nets, which 
may be had for twenty to sixty cents a yard ; a madras, 
which comes in white, ecru, or other colors at prices 
from twenty-five cents to a dollar and a half a yard; 
various white muslins, mulls, and scrims may be bought 
for twelve to fifty cents a yard. 

Draperies made up from these materials are not 
only cheaper but are nearly always in better taste than 
lace curtains of anything like corresponding cost. 



194 Decoration of the School and Home 

The decoration upon the average lace curtain is 
overdone and the eye is compelled to wander over its 
surface in all manner of fantastic curves. Fig. h, plate 
LXXIII, is a fair example of decorated laces, which is 
neither refined nor restful. The delicacy of the deco- 
rative treatment in fig. g, makes it a far more acceptable 
pattern. Dainty horizontal borders such as fig. i, plate 
LXXIV, make most desirable decoration for the window 
curtain. 









Fig. g. 




Fig. h. 
PLATE LXXm. 




Fig. i. 



PLATE LXXrV. 




PLATE LXXV. 



CHAPTER XIX 

Sofa Pillows and Vases 

Sofa pillows may be beautiful as well as useful, 
although too often they have presented just the oppor- 
tunity looked for by the individual who just itches to 
decorate everything within reach with hand-painted 
heads and flowers. These inartistic efforts, owing to 
their inappropriateness, crude drawing, and color, are 
ever clamoring for attention from the couch comer. 

Comparison between the illustrations on plate LXXVI 
establishes at a glance the insistence of the design in 
figs, a, b, and c over that of figs, d and e. The ruffles 




Fig. d. 



Fig. e. 



PLATE LXXVL 



Decora tio n of the School and Home 199 

and curving leaves and stems in a, the girl's head in b, 
and the buttons in fig. c unduly attract the eye. 

The designs in d and e are restful and harmoniously 
related to the use and structure of the pillow. 

VASES 

The effect of an attractive room may be ruined by 
cheaply designed ornaments. If the amount of money 
usually expended for the many cheap pieces of bric-a- 
brac could be invested in a few choice pieces, the 
decorative effect in many homes would be vastly im- 
proved. Vases ought to be selected with due regard 
to utility as well as beauty. There should be tall ones 
to hold long-stemmed flowers and short ones for the 
short-stemmed varieties. As flower holders the con- 
tours of vases should be composed of cxirves which will 
flow gracefully into the lines of plant growth, and their 
color and surface decoration, if there be any, should 
be quiet and harmonious. When flowers are arranged 
in such objects as figs, b, c, and e, plates LXXV, LXXVII 
and LXXVIII, their beauty is at once overcome by the 
prominence of the decoration. 

American decorators must acknowledge with shame 
the part they have played in this awful ceramic 
influence, first created by some one who "just loved 
to paint" and who was allowed to go all over the sur- 
face, unrestrained, with flowers and leaves and stems 
and gold scrolls to complete the outrage. Then the 
foreign potter, producing more cheaply than we, sneer- 
ingly copies our "American style" and gives it back 
to us as imported novelties. The element of beauty 



200 



Decoration of the School and Home 




PLATE LXXVU. 

then that is most appropriate to the uses of vase forms 
is that of simplicity of form and decoration. The relation 
between the vase and the flowers within it should be 
the same as the subordination of the accompaniment 
to the theme in a piece of music. This is also true of 
the relation between a design which is applied to the 




PLATE Lxxvm. 



surface of the vase and its structure. In figs, d and f 
this subordination is clearly apparent while wholly 
lacking in figs, b, c, and e. 




The decorative treatment of a room with panels of beautiful proportions harmonizes 

with the horizontal and vertical lines of mission furniture. 

Courtesy of the M. H. Birge & Sons Co., Buffalo, N. Y. 

PLATE LXXIX. 




The two-toned design of this wall paper illustrates how a background may serve 
to enrich the room without becoming too assertive. 

Courtesy of the M. H. Birge & Sons Co., Buffalo, N. Y. 

PLATE LXXX. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Selection and Arrangement of the Room 
Furnishings 

When William Morris, the great English craftsman, 
admonished the people to have nothing in their homes 
which they did not know to be useful nor believe to be beau- 
tiful, he probably had in mind the stuffy effect of rooms 
overcrowded with misfit furniture, cheap pictures, and over- 
decorated bric-a-brac, rugs, wall papers, and draperies. 

There is a general tendency to collect the things with 
which we surround ourselves without rhyme or reason, 
and the result is never restful, owing to the lack of har- 
mony between the neighboring objects in the room. As 
one enters the living room his attention is drawn hither 
and thither by the loud patterns on wall paper, draperies, 
rugs, and sofa pillows, each clamoring for the undivided 
attention of the visitor. The table, mantel, desk, and 
piano-top are crowded with photographs, over-decorated 
vases, curios, and what not, and finally the confusion is 
increased by a conglomeration of Mission, Louis Six- 
teenth, Colonial, and possibly Chinese furniture. The 
effect is more like a second-hand store than a restful 
living room. 

There are many people who seem to prefer this " crazy 
patchwork " mixture for they say that they crave variety. 
However, variety may be secured without sacrificing 
dignity and beauty, and blatant noises, forms, and colors 
are as a rule pleasing only to the uncultivated eye and ear. 



204 Decoration of the School and Home 

Let us make an inventory of the objects in our homes 
that are really necessary to our well-being and happiness. 
Eliminate those things which are neither useful nor 
beautiful, and study to arrange those objects, which have 
survived the inspection, so that they may appear to the 
best advantage. Each room should have its necessary 
pieces of furniture, harmonious in form and color. Unity 
of effect will be most easily achieved through the use of 
one variety of furniture in each room, as mahogany, oak, 
or birch, although occasionally there are exceptions to 
this rule, as the combination of willow fm^niture with 
either oak or mahogany. The coloring of the upholstery 
and stain of the chairs in this case assist in relating it 
to the other objects in the room. When one is forced, 
through necessity, to furnish a room with different 
styles of furniture of such marked differences of form 
and color as those of oak and mahogany, each kind 
should be grouped in different parts of the room. Let 
us suppose, for example, that it is necessary to furnish 
the living room with easy chairs, bookcases, and a settle 
of mission style, and a table and chairs of mahogany. 
In such a case, it would be well to group the mission 
pieces about the fireplace, and arrange the mahogany at 
each end of the room. Such differences in color and 
design in furniture may be made further less noticeable 
if the colors of wall and floor are similar to that of each 
kind of furniture, which, in the case of mission and 
mahogany, would be a tone of brown between red and 
yellow. 

Every room requires the decorative touch here and 
there to relieve the severity of the straight lines and 




There is a harmonious relation between the proportions of the furniture and the 

decorative treatment of the wall paper, rug, and upholstery in this interior. 

Courtesy of the M. H. Birge & Sons Co., Buffalo, N. Y. 

PLATE LXXXI. 




Decorative treatments consisting of delicate patterns and colors are most desirable 

for apartments on upper floors of the home. 

Courtesy of the M. H. Birge & Sons Co., Buffalo, N. Y. 

PLATE LXXXII. 



Decoration of the School and Home 207 

flatness of wall and floor spaces. The proper balance 
between decorated and undecorated surfaces will result 
in a general effect of simplicity and restfulness, and yet 
there will be no lack of interest. This happy combina- 
tion has been achieved in Plate LXXIX. The wall has 
been broken into pleasing spaces by well related 
panels, the general character of which is carried out in 
the design of door hanging. The more elaborate enrich- 
ment of the curtain is justified as it relieves the severity 
of the mission furniture and wall treatment. The design 
of the rug is restful and contributes its share to the room's 
enrichment. The beautiful vase has been placed where 
it may be best enjoyed, without the interference which 
would have resulted if it had been surrounded by other 
pieces of bric-a-brac. 

Plate LXXX is a forceful lesson in the efifect of 
unity and just proportions between decorated and 
undecorated surfaces. The two-toned design of the 
wall covering is admirable, and illustrates how the back- 
ground may serve to enrich the room without becoming 
too assertive. It is there if we wish to see it, yet it is 
too reserved to insist upon being seen. Therefore, it 
gives precedence, as a good background should, to the 
pictures and bric-a-brac. 

A fine feeling of harmony is produced in the Recep- 
tion Room, Plate LXXXI, through the consistency of pro- 
portion between the furniture and decorations. The 
delicate patterns of rug and wall paper serve as a fitting 
accompaniment to the lightness of the furniture. Plain 
curtains and draperies are wisely chosen to contrast with 
the patterns of floor and wall coverings. 



208 Decoration of the School and Home 

While the formal treatment of the living room seems 
most suitable to its uses, there should exist an atmos- 
phere of airiness in the rooms on the upper floors. Such 
a one is the interior, Plate LXXXII. Here the eye is 
attracted by the unusually beautiful treatment of the 
wall. The dainty Japanese vine motif in the design is 
judiciously repeated at such intervals as will give a 
pleasing variety. This vine is the dominant decorative 
motif in the room. Its beauty is not interfered with by 
any other ornamentation. The rug and door drapery 
are plain and the chair cushion designs are subdued. 
The color of such wall ornamentation should enter into 
the other parts of the room. The willow furniture con- 
tributes a large amount of home atmosphere and the 
design of the upholstering harmonizes in color and 
general character with the wall paper and rug. 

The use of design in door and window draperies is 
made the leading decorative motif in the cosy corner, 
Plate LXXXIV. It is repeated in the sofa cushions. Unity 
has further been secured by selecting a rug pattern 
which is similar in its general effect. Here again care 
should be exercised to repeat the color of the cretonne 
draperies in subdued tones in the other parts of the room. 

THE ARRANGEMENT OF PICTURES AND 
BRIC-A-BRAC 

Having selected a few choice pictures and pieces of 
bric-a-brac the next step is to arrange them in the room 
so that they may become a part of a harmonious whole. 

Pictures like furniture should be in proportion to 
the size of the room. A few good sized pictures are 




Fig. a. When objects are arranged in the center of spaces and spaced evenly 
the effect is commonplace and monotonous. 




Fig. b. Interesting variety may be obtained by balancing objects at tmequal distances 
from the center of the space which they decorate. 

PLATE LXXXni. 




The harmonious effect of this interior is the result of repetition of one motif of decoration 
in different parts of the room and relating all other decoration to it. 

PLATE LXXXrV. 



Decoration of the School and Home 211 

more effective in a large room than many small ones. 
Likewise, large pictures do not show to advantage in 
a room of small dimensions. 

It is a mistake to cover up every bit of wall space with 
pictures, for such an arrangement creates an appearance 
of confusion. The beauty of each picture will be enhanced 
if it is surrounded with a generous portion of background. 

When a picture is of sufficient size to decorate one 
wall space, its proportions should be similar to those 
of the space. It should be balanced on the center 
axis, but placed above the exact center of the wall 
space as in fig. a, plate LXXXIII. 

In the grouping of several pictures, or of two 
objects, care should be observed to avoid the monotony 
which results from arranging them in a formal, set 
manner as in fig. a, plate LXXXIII. 

Far more interesting results will be achieved when 
balance is obtained through arranging the objects at 
varying distances from the center of the space they are 
placed in. These distances should be regulated by the 
attractive force each object exerts on the eye. The 
attraction of the " Winged Victory " in fig. b, is balanced 
by placing the greater portion of the picture and the 
larger number of objects on the shelf above to the left 
of the center axis of the wall space. 

When any doubt arises as to the balance, it is well to 
hold a plumb line so that it passes through the center of the 
background upon which the pictures are placed and then 
the weight of attractions may be judged more accurately. 

Such problems must be decided through a feeling 
for balance for they can be solved in no other way. 



